u/Economy-Fee5830

This graphic shows how solar beat the IEA’s 2015 forecast for 2025 by 1,800%.

Back then, the IEA expected the world to add about 34 GW of solar each year through to 2040. In 2025, the world added almost 650 GW.

As for solar generation, that reached almost 2,800 TWh in 2025, about as much electricity as the EU consumes in a year. That helped clean power meet all new electricity demand growth globally and nudged fossil generation into decline.

The story implicit in this graphic is that #solar behaves more like semiconductors than fossil fuels. As manufacturing scales, costs fall. Every doubling of global cumulative solar capacity has historically reduced costs by about 20%.

It also explores the 'killer app' of the transition: solar + batteries. As Ember puts it, 'the accelerating build-out of solar power is increasingly taking place alongside battery storage deployment, enabling the next paradigm shift – from daytime solar to anytime solar..'

Full infographic and write-up: https://www.climatetrunk.com/infographics/the-sun-has-won

To put this in perspective: China alone installed 415 GW of solar in 2025. That single country's solar installations in one year exceeded the entire cumulative capacity of every operational nuclear reactor on Earth combined (~376 GW).