According to SolarPower Europe’s EU Market Outlook for Solar Power 2025–2029, the world’s solar capacity increased by 33% or 597 GW in 2024 (compared to 2023) reaching a cumulative installed solar capacity of 2.2 TW and predicting the installation of 1 TW per year by the end of the decade. The document reports an uneven and highly concentrated distribution of solar capacity around the globe, with China concentrating 55% of the new added capacity (329 MW) and having almost 1 TW of cumulative capacity. The US and India lag with only 8% and 5% (50 GW and 30.7 GW, respectively) of the new solar capacity. India saw a significant advance by doubling its installations in 2024, recording a 145% increase compared to the 12.5 GW installed in 2023, in line with its ambition to install 200 GW of solar within the next 5 years. The remaining contenders among the top ten solar markets saw a steady growth, with Brazil and Germany each accounting for 3% of global installations (+18.9 GW and +17.4 GW), Spain and Türkiye for 2% each (+8.7 GW and +8.5 GW), and finally with Italy, Japan and France for 1% each (+6.8 GW, +6.2 GW and +4.7 GW). As a region, the Middle East and Africa (MEA) saw a 2% decrease in installations in 2024 (+14.5 GW).
For 2025, total solar capacity is expected to reach 2.9 TW, with a year-to-year increase of only 10% (655 GW) due to geopolitical and economic challenges and system integration problems. The report also includes a prospective analysis towards 2029 with a preliminary outlook for 2030, expecting an annual global solar growth between and 694 GW and 1.2 TW per year depending on the scenario, and a cumulative capacity ranging between 5.3 TW (low scenario) and 7.2 TW (high scenario) by 2029. By 2030, the report expects solar to represent about 65% of the total renewable capacity required to meet the 11 TW global target.
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