The Evolution of Solar Power in 2017
The figures are in and with over 80 GW of new capacity installed globally, 2017 has certainly been a very bright year for the solar industry.
The Evolution of Solar Power is the result of a cooperation between SolarPower Europe and renewable energy software company Greenbyte. The interactive map reveals the cumulative installed solar power capacity per country, continent and the world between 1992-2017. Now let’s dig into some of those figures and see what has happened in the past twelve months.
Established solar power nations China and USA kept their impressive growth with over 25% new capacity added in 2017 respectively. Also notable in 2017, China crossed the 100 GW mark in installed solar power capacity.
In Europe, France and Germany also kept their steady growth, adding respectively 1 and 2 GW. With over 43 GW installed, Germany remains Europe’s biggest player when it comes to solar, followed by Italy with over 19 GW and the UK which added almost 1 GW in 2017, totaling over 12 GW.
Worth mentioning in Europe, Hungary and Poland which doubled their respective installed capacity in 2017, totaling almost 500 MW and 400 MW of solar installed capacity. The Netherlands also followed an impressive growth, up 32%, with over 800 MW installed in 2017.
2017 was also an excellent year for Asia as India and Japan hit the ground running adding over 8, 000 MW of solar power capacity respectively in 2017 and now reaching 15 605 MW and 50 750 MW.
Other countries that experienced significant growth in installed solar power capacity last year were Turkey up 60% to 1920 MW, Sweden up 41%, Mexico up 37%, Cyprus up 30% and South Korea up 22% to 5550 MW.
Try the Evolution of Solar Power map. Interested in wind power? Check out the Evolution of Wind Power map.
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