News flash
- The Global Solar Council leads the worldwide solar industry today in the celebration of achieving 2 TW of installed solar PV capacity against the backdrop of a Donald Trump presidency in the U.S. and a pivotal COP29 slated to begin next week in Baku, Azerbaijan.
- The deployment of solar energy has exponentially accelerated in recent years, carrying with it dramatic cost reductions that make solar now the cheapest form of energy available to consumers in many countries across the globe.
It took the solar PV industry 68 years to reach 1 TW of installed capacity – from 1954-2022. It has taken only 2 years to reach the next TW (2022-2024), with the 2 TW milestone reached in recent weeks according to estimates calculated by the Global Solar Council and SolarPower Europe.
The milestone highlights how solar energy is becoming the backbone of the global energy system. Notably, 2 TW of solar is equivalent to the total installed electricity capacity of India, the USA and UK combined and could power an estimated one billion homes, based on a global average household energy consumption of 3,500 kWh per year and a 20% capacity factor.
The report highlights that to reach the goal of tripling global renewable energy capacity by 2030 to keep the world on a 1.5C pathway, more financing needs to be unlocked for solar, especially in emerging and developing markets.
“Achieving 2 terawatts of installed solar capacity is a historic milestone—while it took 68 years to reach the first terawatt, the next was achieved in just two. This rapid acceleration underscores solar’s vital role within the broader renewable energy mix. But to truly meet the goal of tripling renewables by 2030, we must scale up all renewable technologies in unison,” said Bruce Douglas, CEO of the Global Renewables Alliance. “Overcoming bottlenecks and securing investor confidence is critical, especially in emerging markets. COP29 presents a key opportunity for governments to lead the renewables race, setting ambitious targets and clear actions in their climate plans and committing to a global push for the infrastructure—grids and storage—that will enable this massive scale-up.”
At COP29 (the ‘Finance COP’), the Global Solar Council will launch the International Solar Finance Group, creating the world’s first ever global dialogue between the solar PV industry and the finance sector to bridge the financial gap between ambition and deployment and to ensure that the world remains on track to meet its climate and sustainable development commitments.
The International Solar Finance Group’s inaugural session, set for November 15 in Baku, will lay out an ambitious agenda to develop innovative financial solutions and frameworks aimed at making solar investments more accessible and attractive, especially in emerging markets, by engaging both private sector investors and development banks.
The Global Solar Council’s ambition for the Group is to reduce the cost of capital for solar in developing economies from 15% to 5% to remove the financing barrier and boost deployment. The Group will be a first-of-its-kind platform for diverse solar finance stakeholders to connect, share knowledge, discuss challenges, and offer recommendations to drive real-world financing solutions to match ambition. It will also serve to drive actions aimed at channeling solar finance where it’s needed most.
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
