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Field guide

Solar energy

Sunlight becomes electrons. The idea is simple; the grid, supply chains, and land use are the plot twists.

Set the scene

Solar energy converts sunlight into electricity (photovoltaics) or heat (including concentrating solar). IPCC AR6 WGIII documents rapid cost declines and deployment growth for solar PV; solar PV and wind together supplied about 8% of global electricity in 2019 (with solar PV roughly 2.5% and wind about 5.5% of total generation—high confidence). Lifecycle greenhouse-gas intensity is typically far lower than unabated fossil generation, but manufacturing, land use, and end-of-life treatment matter for overall footprint and impacts.

Signal, not noise

Three snaps from the evidence

3 beats
  1. 01

    IPCC AR6 WGIII reports that solar PV capacity and generation grew rapidly from 2015 to 2019 (including about 170% growth in generation to 680 TWh/yr), driven by policy, cost reductions, and low financing costs in many markets.

  2. 02

    Globally, low- and zero-carbon electricity generation technologies produced about 37% of electricity in 2019; integrating rising shares of variable renewables requires flexible grids, markets, and storage (high confidence).

  3. 03

    Manufacturing relies on energy-intensive materials and supply chains; fair comparisons use lifecycle-oriented methods and transparent data—not headline-only claims.

Chart break

Explore the data

Share of electricity generated by solar power (percent of total electricity). Change country or year in the chart; the grapher page lists datasets (e.g. Ember, Energy Institute) and methodology.

Chart: Our World in Data (CC BY). Each grapher page lists the underlying datasets, units, and processing notes—use it when citing numbers.

Open on Our World in Data

No fairy tales

Where it helps—and where it hurts

Strengths

  • Very low direct operating emissions during power generation compared with unabated coal or gas.
  • Modular deployment suits many scales—from rooftop to utility-scale—and has benefited from rapid learning and cost reductions where markets are mature.
  • Technical potential is geographically widespread; solar PV can complement electrification and sector coupling.

Limits & trade-offs

  • Generation varies with weather, season, and time of day; accommodating high shares raises integration, forecasting, and storage needs.
  • Land use and land-use change can conflict with agriculture, habitat, and community values; planning and siting matter.
  • End-of-life panels and supply chains require responsible recycling and responsible sourcing of critical materials.

Read the receipts

Sources for this page

These entries are starting points for verification. Prefer the original report or dataset when checking numbers and figures.

  1. IPCC AR6 WGIII Ch. 6Clarke, L., Wei, Y.-M., De La Vega Navarro, A., Garg, A., Hahmann, A. N., Khennas, S., Azevedo, I. M. L., Loschel, A., Singh, A. K., Steg, L., Strbac, G., & Wada, K. (2022). Energy systems. In P. R. Shukla et al. (Eds.), Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change (IPCC AR6 WGIII, Chapter 6). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009157926.008
  2. IEA RenewablesInternational Energy Agency. (2024). Renewables 2024: Analysis and forecast to 2030. IEA. https://www.iea.org/reports/renewables-2024
  3. IRENA renewable power costsInternational Renewable Energy Agency. (2024). Renewable power generation costs in 2023. IRENA. https://www.irena.org/Publications/2024/Sep/Renewable-power-generation-costs-in-2023
  4. Our World in DataRitchie, H., & Rosado, P. (2020). Electricity mix. Our World in Data. https://ourworldindata.org/electricity-mix (underlying grapher datasets include Ember and Energy Institute series, cited per chart metadata).