Daybreak Institute · 2026 report
The fastest energy build-out in history.
Solar power went from a rounding error to the largest source of new electricity on Earth in fifteen years. Scroll through the numbers.
Scroll through the numbers
2000 – 2010
A slow start.
For a decade solar was expensive and small. By 2010 the whole world had 41 gigawatts installed, less than 2% of what it has today.
2010 – 2025
Then it went vertical.
By 2025 the world had 2,397 GW, almost sixty times as much. The world added 514 GW in 2025 alone, more than its entire total at the end of 2018.
Who built it
Europe went first.
In 2010 Europe had three-quarters of the world's solar. German feed-in tariffs paid for the factories that brought prices down for everyone.
The turn
Then China built half of it.
China went from 1 GW in 2010 to 1,202 GW in 2025, half of all the solar on the planet, and makes most of the panels everyone else installs.
What's next
India is the one to watch.
India passed 135 GW in 2025, up from under 6 GW in 2015. In 2025 it added more solar than the United States did.
2397GW
Solar installed worldwide in 2025
58×
Growth since 2010
50%
Of it in China
15yrs
From niche to mainstream
Every chart, every source.
The 2026 report
Our annual report tracks installations, prices and grids in 40 countries. All the data is open and every chart links to where it came from.
Read the report →