Solar generates fifth of global electricity on summer solstice midday peak

Today across midday peaks on the summer solstice, the world will generate about a fifth of its electricity from solar. This milestone highlights the rapid growth and impact of solar power, which has seen unprecedented expansion in recent years.

Kostantsa Rangelova

Global Electricity Analyst

Ember

Dr Katye Altieri

Electricity Transition Analyst - Global

Ember

21 June 2024| 4 min read

Ember estimates that 20% of global electricity generation across midday peaks on the solstice today will come from solar and in the entire month of June, solar will generate 8.2% of global electricity. Solar is the fastest-growing source of electricity in the world, with China leading the way by installing 152% more solar capacity in 2023 compared to the previous year. This surge underscores solar’s pivotal role in the global clean energy revolution, with 34 economies now generating over 10% of their electricity from solar. As solar continues to expand, it is poised to further transform the power sector and accelerate the world’s transition to renewable energy.

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World generates fifth of its electricity from solar on summer solstice midday peak

Ember estimates that across the midday peaks on 21 June, the UN’s International Day of the Celebration of the Solstice – 20% of the world’s electricity will come from solar. In comparison, last year this value was 16%.

For the 24 hour average, Ember forecasts that solar will provide 8.2% of global electricity generation on 21 June. Although the solstice is the longest day of the year, all days in June are similar enough in length that solar generation on this day will be very close to the monthly average. The hourly profile was calculated by a weighted average of the hourly solar generation data.

Global peaks in solar around summer months

Across the year, global solar generation peaks in the summer months of the northern hemisphere, where Ember estimates 89% of the world’s solar panels are installed.

Ember tracks monthly electricity generation for 80 countries. Based on historical monthly data, monthly global solar generation is quite similar from May to August, although its share falls slightly towards August, as global electricity demand rises due to increased air conditioning demand in the northern hemisphere.

Ember’s forecast for June 2024 is 8.2%, compared to 6.7% recorded in June 2023. In absolute terms, Ember expects solar to rise by 28%, from 157 TWh in June 2023 to 201 TWh in June 2024.

Across the whole of 2023, solar generated a record 5.5% of global electricity.

Spotlight: Solar generation in the world’s four biggest solar markets

In China, the world’s largest solar market accounting for 36% of global solar generation in 2023, we expect the share of solar in total electricity generation to reach 9.6% in June 2024, up from 7% in June 2023. On average, for the full year 2023, solar’s share in China’s electricity generation was 6.2%.

For the EU, a global wind and solar leader, we expect the solar share across June to be more than double the global average at 20%, up from 17% in June 2023. On average, for the entire year 2023, the EU’s solar share was 9.2%. For Spain, which has one of the highest solar shares in the EU and the world, the share of solar in June 2024 is expected to be even higher at 30%.

Meanwhile, the US and India are expected to have very similar solar share in June 2024, at 6.9% and 7.1% respectively compared to the global average of 8.2%. Both countries had very similar annual average solar share in 2023, with the US at 5.6% and India at 5.8%, slightly higher than the global average of 5.5%.

Solar is supercharging the global clean power revolution

No other source of electricity has ever grown from 100 TWh to 1000 TWh of generation faster than solar. It took just 8 years for solar, making it ahead of wind (12 years), and far ahead of gas (28 years), coal (32 years) and hydro (39 years).

In 2023, records for solar additions and generation continued to be set. More than 2 million solar panels were installed on average every day, up from just over 1 million in 2022.

In 2023, solar added twice as much new electricity as coal and met 49% of global electricity demand growth. It was the fastest-growing source of electricity generation for the 19th year in a row.

For more detail on the rapid growth in solar generation, read the chapter on solar in Ember’s Global Electricity Review.

Record-breaking capacity growth in 2023

China was the main driver behind a record-breaking 346 GW annual increase of global solar capacity in 2023. It was responsible for 63% of global solar additions in 2023. This was a record high share and a significant increase from China’s contribution of 43% of global solar additions in 2022.

China’s solar capacity additions increased by 152% compared to the previous year. This was more than three times faster than the growth in additions of all the G7 countries (+42%).

China has played a pivotal role in scaling up wind and solar deployment globally. With growing adoption, the cost of these technologies fell, making them the cheapest source of electricity. Overall, global solar capacity has boomed due to steep declines in costs, supportive policy environments, technological efficiency improvements and increased manufacturing capability.

For more detail on the rapid growth in solar capacity last year, read our recent post on IRENA data.

It is happening everywhere

China is leading global solar capacity additions and solar generation, but rapid solar scale-up is also happening in countries with different geographies, stages of economic development and political systems, demonstrating that we have all the tools necessary to make this fast change happen in power sectors across the world.

Increased deployment worldwide is evident as there are now 34 economies that generate more than 10% of their electricity from solar. This is eight more than in 2022 , while less than a decade ago, in 2015, there were none. Of those 34 economies, nine are large electricity markets with more than 5 TWh of solar generation including Chile (20%), Greece (19%) and Hungary (18%).

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Several countries made considerable progress in just the last year. Chile became the first country to reach 20% solar share in its mix – the target global average in the IEA’s Net Zero Energy scenario. Meanwhile, the UAE surpassed Germany in terms of solar generation per capita, having surpassed the US in 2019.

The untapped potential of the sunniest countries

Many sunny countries have yet to tap the potential of solar. While a few leaders like Australia and Spain are producing almost 20% of their power from solar, 66% of countries generate less than 5% of their electricity from solar. High solar generation even in countries with relatively poor insolation like Germany (12%) and the Netherlands (17%) highlights the potential solar has for meeting generation needs regardless of natural endowments.

Solar provides clean power that can be deployed quickly and locally to the demand source. New solar power produces the cheapest electricity in history, according to the IEA. This year’s northern hemisphere solstice may well be part of another record-breaking June for global solar generation, in part because most of the world’s solar installations are located there. Many high potential countries across the globe face financial and logistical challenges and it is important to enable solar development in these countries to lead the world towards a clean, electrified energy future.

Acknowledgements

Cover image

Credit: Quang Ngoc Nguyen

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