Many countries and territories have installed significant solar power capacity into their electrical grids to supplement or provide an alternative to conventional energy sources. Solar power plants use one of two technologies:
Spain is one of the first countries to deploy large-scale solar photovoltaics, and is the world leader in concentrated solar power (CSP) production.
India's solar power installed capacity was 87.21 GW AC as of 31 July 2024. India is the third largest producer of solar power globally.
For solar power, South Asia has the ideal combination of both high solar insolation and a high density of potential customers.
Solar power has a small but growing role in electricity production in the United Kingdom.
A feed-in tariff is a policy mechanism designed to accelerate investment in renewable energy technologies by offering long-term contracts to renewable energy producers. This means promising renewable energy producers an above-market price and providing price certainty and long-term contracts that help finance renewable energy investments. Typically, FITs award different prices to different sources of renewable energy in order to encourage the development of one technology over another. For example, technologies such as wind power and solar PV are awarded a higher price per kWh than tidal power. FITs often include a "digression": a gradual decrease of the price or tariff in order to follow and encourage technological cost reductions.
Solar power consists of photovoltaics (PV) and solar thermal energy in the European Union (EU).
Solar power has been growing rapidly in the U.S. state of California because of high insolation, community support, declining solar costs, and a renewable portfolio standard which requires that 60% of California's electricity come from renewable resources by 2030, with 100% by 2045. Much of this is expected to come from solar power via photovoltaic facilities or concentrated solar power facilities.
India is the world's 3rd largest consumer of electricity and the world's 3rd largest renewable energy producer with 40% of energy capacity installed in the year 2022 coming from renewable sources. Ernst & Young's (EY) 2021 Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Index (RECAI) ranked India 3rd behind USA and China. In FY2023-24, India is planning to issue 50 GW tenders for wind, solar and hybrid projects. India has committed for a goal of 500 GW renewable energy capacity by 2030.
The energy sector in Hawaii has rapidly adopted solar power due to the high costs of electricity, and good solar resources, and has one of the highest per capita rates of solar power in the United States. Hawaii's imported energy costs, mostly for imported petroleum and coal, are three to four times higher than the mainland, so Hawaii has motivation to become one of the highest users of solar energy. Hawaii was the first state in the United States to reach grid parity for photovoltaics. Its tropical location provides abundant ambient energy.
Renewable energy in Pakistan is a relatively underdeveloped sector; however, in recent years, there has been more and more interest to explore renewable energy resources for the energy production. Around 10.57% of Pakistan’s total installed power generation capacity comes renewables. Most of Pakistan's renewable energy comes from hydroelectricity. As per the vision of the Prime Minister, there is the aim to “induct 20% of RE by the year 2025 and 30% of RE by the year 2030.”
Electricity in Cyprus is managed by the Electricity Authority of Cyprus. Power is primarily generated at three fuel oil-burning stations but the use of distributed renewable energy is expanding.
Solar power is an important contributor to electricity generation in Italy, accounting for 8% of the total in 2017. As of 2022, the country has a total installed capacity of 22.56 GW. In 2019, Italy set a national goal of reaching 50 GW by 2030.
A photovoltaic power station, also known as a solar park, solar farm, or solar power plant, is a large-scale grid-connected photovoltaic power system designed for the supply of merchant power. They are different from most building-mounted and other decentralized solar power because they supply power at the utility level, rather than to a local user or users. Utility-scale solar is sometimes used to describe this type of project.
Solar power in South Africa includes photovoltaics (PV) as well as concentrated solar power (CSP). As of July 2024, South Africa had 2,287 MW of installed utility-scale PV solar power capacity in its grid, in addition to 5,791 MW of rooftop solar and 500 MW of CSP. Installed capacity is expected to reach 8,400 MW by 2030.
Solar power in Saudi Arabia has become more important to the country as oil prices have risen. In 2021, 60.89% of energy consumed was produced by burning oil. The Saudi agency in charge of developing the nations renewable energy sector, Ka-care, announced in May 2012 that the nation would install 41 gigawatts (GW) of solar capacity by 2032. It was projected to be composed of 25 GW of solar thermal, and 16 GW of photovoltaics. At the time of this announcement, Saudi Arabia had only 0.003 gigawatts of installed solar energy capacity. A total of 54 GW was expected by 2032, and 24 GW was expected in 2020, which was never reached. 1,100 megawatts (MW) of photovoltaics and 900 megawatts of concentrated solar thermal (CSP) was expected to be completed by early 2013. Also in 2013, solar power in Saudi Arabia had achieved grid parity and was able to produce electricity at costs comparable to conventional sources.
Solar power in Denmark amounts to 3,645 MW of grid-connected PV capacity at the end of March 2024, and contributes to a goal to use 100% renewable electricity by 2030 and 100% renewable energy by 2050. Solar power produced 9.3% of Danish electricity generation in 2023, the highest share in the Nordic countries.
Under its commitment to the EU renewable energy directive of 2009, France has a target of producing 23% of its total energy needs from renewable energy by 2020. This figure breaks down to renewable energy providing 33% of energy used in the heating and cooling sector, 27% of the electricity sector and 10.5% in the transport sector. By the end of 2014, 14.3% of France's total energy requirements came from renewable energy, a rise from 9.6% in 2005.
Solar power in Chile is an increasingly important source of energy. Total installed photovoltaic (PV) capacity in Chile reached 8.36 GW in 2023. Solar energy provided 19.9% of national electricity generation in Chile in 2023, compared to less than 0.1% in 2013.
The Quaid-e-Azam Solar Park is a photovoltaic power station in Bahawalpur, Punjab, Pakistan, named in honor of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the Founder of Pakistan. It is a 400 MW solar facility spanning an area of 8 km2 and hosting 1.6 million solar modules. The initial phase of the project was constructed by the Government of Punjab through a 100% owned subsidiary QA Solar in May 2015 at a cost of $131 million. On 5 May 2015, the then Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif inaugurated the first 100 MW project and dedicated it to the nation. Subsequent expansion was done in public-private partnership with Appolo Solar Development Pakistan Limited, Best Green Energy Pakistan Limited and Crest Energy Pakistan Limited each installing a 100 MW unit. The next phase of 100 MW will be installed by Zorlu Solar Pakistan (Pvt.) Limited, making it a 500 MW facility. Total planned capacity of the solar park is 1,000 MW.
