Top countries with the most solar power in operation - Global Times
from yogthos@lemmy.ml to technology@lemmy.ml on 23 Apr 03:41
https://lemmy.ml/post/29024090

www.globaltimes.cn/page/202504/1331334.shtml

#technology

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allywilson@lemmy.ml on 23 Apr 05:19 next collapse

I’m just impressed the UK can even be in the top 10.

Mihies@programming.dev on 23 Apr 05:45 next collapse

Data should be per capita or another relative measure.

django@discuss.tchncs.de on 23 Apr 05:57 next collapse

Yes, solar per capita, or percentage of solar in total energy production.

Faceman2K23@discuss.tchncs.de on 23 Apr 06:00 collapse

If you want it Per Capita, try this one with data from 2023.

Pretty different story naturally.

(edited link to include the same countries as the op post)

Mihies@programming.dev on 23 Apr 13:08 next collapse

Indeed that paints a different picture as suggested.

Mihies@programming.dev on 23 Apr 13:09 collapse

But still, China is going full power on renewables, eventually they will pull ahead there as well, unless west or others start investing in renewables seriously.

PennyRoyal@sh.itjust.works on 23 Apr 06:51 collapse

I reckon we’d be doing even better if it was total renewables, we lean toward wind power more than most, what with being an island and all

Blisterexe@lemmy.zip on 23 Apr 11:28 collapse

That would put you in competition with places like canada, that are 76% renewables though, if you count hydro.

For wind alone (according to wikipedia) you do do better, but are still in 6th place.

<img alt="" src="https://lemmy.zip/pictrs/image/c6924127-ed57-4242-bdf0-430fd84c1333.webp">

yogthos@lemmy.ml on 23 Apr 15:42 collapse

You’d also have to count all the oil and gas that Canada exports to be burned around the world. Whether it’s used domestically or not doesn’t really make a difference.

Blisterexe@lemmy.zip on 23 Apr 20:59 collapse

true, but then you’d have to do the same with every other country that sells oil, which would skew the numbers a bunch

yogthos@lemmy.ml on 23 Apr 21:25 collapse

Of course, that’s the only proper way to track this.

Faceman2K23@discuss.tchncs.de on 23 Apr 06:02 next collapse

China putting china on top of the charts is expected, but it’s per capita production that makes more sense for direct comparison of countries.

In that case… Australia is the leader by a strong margin…

Fleur_@aussie.zone on 23 Apr 07:29 next collapse

Yo wtf, Aussie w???

beeng@discuss.tchncs.de on 23 Apr 11:11 collapse

Were looking to supply Asia with power soon. Afaik this is all Northern territory, not eastern seaboard.

yogthos@lemmy.ml on 23 Apr 12:15 collapse

Per capita production makes no sense actually, per capita consumption makes sense, and that’s double of that in China in Australia.

Ferk@lemmy.ml on 23 Apr 15:18 next collapse

Doesn’t that table show Australia has double the consumption? also that consumption number is in total primary energy, regardless if the energy comes from solar or not.

I believe that to see how much of the TPES for each country comes from solar we would need to divide the solar production per capita by the total consumption per capita:

- Australia: 1774 kWh / 63257 kWh = 2.80%
- China:    410 kWh / 33267 kWh = 1.23%

Sources: the 2023 numbers from his link, and the 2023 numbers from the source in your wikipedia link.

yogthos@lemmy.ml on 23 Apr 15:38 collapse

When it comes to China, you really have to look at latest numbers because how much renewable installations there change year to year. China hit an inflection point in 2023 where fossil fuel usage started to shrink:

China installed more solar in 2023 than the rest of the world combined, with the majority of it coming online in the country’s sparsely populated west and north.

That same year, its renewable capacity grew faster than its overall demand for electricity — meaning its fossil fuel usage actually went backwards.

www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12-18/…/104006096

Then, in 2024 China continued to massively expand renewable usage (including solar)

China has achieved another year of remarkable growth in renewable energy, with the addition of 277 GW of solar and 79 GW of wind capacity in 2024. This surge has brought the cumulative solar and wind capacity to a staggering 1,407 GW. China contributed 15% of the world’s installed solar capacity in 2024 alone.

spglobal.com/…/012425-infographic-china-solar-cap…

China hit new record of solar and wind power capacity additions in 2024 climateenergyfinance.org/…/MONTHLY-CHINA-ENERGY-U…

China was at nearly 50% of the world’s solar capacity in 2024 according to IEA reglobal.org/snapshot-of-global-pv-markets-2024/

China’s new PV installations forecast to reach up to 255GW in 2025 pv-tech.org/chinas-new-pv-installations-forecast-…

The pace of transition to renewables in China is on a completely different scale from the rest of the world.

Ferk@lemmy.ml on 24 Apr 08:42 collapse

Ok, there are no numbers from 2024 yet in the source.

I think the solar capacity in 2023 for China was 525GW.

So a 277 GW increase in solar means it increased by (277 / 525) 52.76% (that’s great!)

That same percentage increase over the current value in terms of production would not make it rise past Australia per capita yet, but nobody can deny that’s an impressive pace.

Also, considering that the trend in population numbers for China is slowly starting to decrease, that could also contribute to an increase in the per capita numbers in the future.

butsbutts@lemmy.ml on 25 Apr 14:25 collapse

afghanistan is at the top of the list!!!

kibiz0r@midwest.social on 23 Apr 09:58 next collapse

US once again beaten by rest of world.

cypherpunks@lemmy.ml on 23 Apr 12:59 next collapse

<img alt="Zach Galifianakis Math meme" src="https://lemmy.ml/pictrs/image/32489a2f-2dd1-4506-9c80-c6394d527ebb.png">

By “solar power in operation” (in GW) i think they mean maximum output capacity rather than actual production, since these numbers add up to 923 GW while wikipedia says in 2024 there was 2.13 petawatt-hours (243 GW on average) actually produced by solar.

<img alt="wikipedia screenshot with pie chart. 2024 world electricity generation by source. Total generation was 30.85 petawatt-hours. Coal 10,587 (34.4%), Natural gas 6,796 (22.1%), Hydro 4,417 (14.4%), Nuclear 2,765 (8.99%), Wind 2,497 (8.12%), Solar 2,130 (6.92%), Other 1,569 (5.10%)" src="https://lemmy.ml/pictrs/image/1e2a0be7-a257-47ea-975a-ffbc85ab5157.png">

pupbiru@aussie.zone on 24 Apr 09:32 collapse

i’m actually super surprised australia makes the cut… AND is about 10% of the USA with like 7% of the population… our power grid is fucking disgusting for carbon (although i guess we’re only just above the USA in per capita emissions too so that makes sense i suppose)

explodicle@sh.itjust.works on 25 Apr 01:29 collapse

I was surprised it was so low! Doesn’t Australia have a lot of open sunny area?

Edit: it’s not low, they’re #1 per capita