The top countries in wind and solar energy per capita

The 2012 ranking of all the installed cumulative capacity of wind energy and solar PV has been released by Swiss-based SolarSuperState, and gives an insight into which countries have installed the most wind and solar – not as an absolute number, but as a rate per capita (a very popular measuring stick given Australia’s performance at the London Olympics).

This year has seen Germany win number 1 ranking, ahead of the Vatican (which is, let’s remember, the world’s smallest sovereign state, with a population of just over 800) with a cumulative capacity of 301W per capita. Italy (201W per capita) has taken third place from the Czech Republic.

Australia has held its position at 11th place on the table, but has increased its watts per capita from 22 in 2011, to 57 in 2012.

As you can see from the table below, however, the big winners in the PV rankings were Japan (38W per captia) which passed five countries (Slovakia, Greece, Australia, France, Slovenia) on its way up to 14th place. The US, meanwhile, was outdistanced by the UK, Palau, Cape Verde, Bulgaria, Canada and Israel. China makes the biggest jump from the last rank (197) to rank 35. India occupies last position (197) after Indonesia (196).

The association noted that the critical success factor for a move up in the PV rankings for Germany, Italy and the UK were the countries’ respective national feed-in tariff systems.

Wind energy

In wind energy, the three leading countries Denmark (rank 1), Spain (2) and Portugal (3) were unchallenged. The leader, Denmark, has more than 700 watts of cumulative installed power per capita. Honduras makes the biggest jump from rank 137 to 47, while last place has not changed from 2011 to 2012: Indonesia (rank 197).

Winners in both rankings “Solar” and “Wind”

According to SolarSuperState, seven countries improve their rankings in both categories: United Kingdom, Greece, Italy, China, Norway, Cape Verde and Croatia.