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:
Solar power is a fast-growing industry in Australia. As of June 2023, Australia's over 3.52 million solar PV installations had a combined capacity of 32,095 MW photovoltaic (PV) solar power, of which at least 4,389 MW were installed in the preceding 12 months. In 2019, 59 solar PV projects with a combined capacity of 2,881 MW were either under construction, constructed or due to start construction having reached financial closure. Solar accounted for 12.4% of Australia's total electrical energy production in 2021.
Spain is one of the first countries to deploy large-scale solar photovoltaics, and is the world leader in concentrated solar power (CSP) production.
Solar power is a fast developing industry in India. The country's solar installed capacity was 71.61 GWAC as of 31 August 2023. Solar power generation in India ranks fourth globally in 2021.
Solar power represented a very small part of electricity production in the United Kingdom until the 2010s when it increased rapidly, thanks to feed-in tariff (FIT) subsidies and the falling cost of photovoltaic (PV) panels.
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 includes solar farms as well as local distributed generation, mostly on rooftops and increasingly from community solar arrays. In 2022, utility-scale solar power generated 145.6 terawatt-hours (TWh), or 3.4% of electricity in the United States. Total solar generation that year, including estimated small-scale photovoltaic generation, was 204 TWh.
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.
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.
Development of solar power in Greece started in 2006 and installations of photovoltaic systems skyrocketed from 2009 because of the appealing feed-in tariffs introduced and the corresponding regulations for domestic applications of rooftop solar PV. In 2019, 90% of the around 2.5 GWp capacity was installed in 2011, 2012 and 2013. However, funding the FITs created an unacceptable deficit of more than €500 million in the Greek "Operator of Electricity Market" RES fund. To reduce that deficit, new regulations were introduced in August 2012 including retrospective feed-in tariffs reduction, with further reductions over time. These measures enabled the deficit to be erased by 2017.
DTEK is the largest commercial energy operator in Ukraine. The company's enterprises generate electricity at solar, wind and thermal power plants; extract coal and natural gas, trade energy products in the Ukrainian and foreign markets, distribute and supply electricity to consumers, and develop a grid of supercharger stations for e-vehicles.
The Okhotnykove Solar Power Station is a Photovoltaic power station in Crimea with installed capacity of 82,65 megawatts (MW). As of April 2012, it is the world's 6th largest solar plant and the second largest PV station in central and eastern Europe. The power station is located at Okhotnykove, Crimea, Ukraine and was developed by the Austrian company Activ Solar. The first and second phases of the project were commissioned in July 2011, the third and fourth in October 2011.
Activ Solar GmbH, headquartered in Vienna, Austria, was a developer of solar energy. It was engaged in the production of polycrystalline silicon (polysilicon) for the solar PV industry and the development of large-scale photovoltaic power stations in Ukraine. In February 2016, it filed for insolvency.
The Perovo Solar Park or Perove Solar Park is a 100 MWp photovoltaic power station located at Klyuchi - a part of Perove, Simferopol Raion, Crimea, Ukraine. As of July 2012, it was the world's fourth-largest solar farm, and was made up of 440,000 solar panels. It is owned by Activ Solar, and the final 20 MW stage was completed on December 29, 2011.
Solar power in France including overseas territories reached an installed capacity figure of 11.2 GW in 2020, and rose further to 17.1 GW at the end of 2022. Government plans announced in 2022 foresee solar PV capacity in France rising to 100 GW by 2050.
Solar power in Mexico has the potential to produce vast amounts of energy. 70% of the country has an insolation of greater than 4.5 kWh/m2/day. Using 15% efficient photovoltaics, a square 25 km (16 mi) on each side in the state of Chihuahua or the Sonoran Desert could supply all of Mexico's electricity.
Solar power in South Africa includes photovoltaics (PV) as well as concentrated solar power (CSP). In 2016, South Africa had 1,329 MW of installed solar power capacity. Installed capacity is expected to reach 8,400 MW by 2030.
In Ukraine, the share of renewables within the total energy mix is less than 5%. In 2020 10% of electricity was generated from renewables; made up of 5% hydro, 4% wind, and 1% solar. Biomass provides renewable heat.
Wind power in Ukraine is mostly in areas affected by the Russo-Ukrainian War. At the end of 2021 there was 1.7 gigawatts (GW) of wind power capacity. One GW was planned to be added in 2022, but the Russian invasion stalled development.
Tashlyk Pumped-Storage Power Plant is a pumped-storage power station near Yuzhnoukrainsk in Mykolaiv Oblast, Ukraine. It connects Tashlyk reservoir with Oleksandrivska reservoir on the Southern Bug River.
