u/FatDalek

Two sources of note. First is IRENA which focuses on capacity and Ember, which focus on energy production. The difference is capacity is measure of power, while energy production is of course how much energy you produce (ie the same amount of solar panels placed in a cold country will generate less than the same amount put in a sunny country).

IRENA link - https://mc-cd8320d4-36a1-40ac-83cc-3389-cm.azurewebsites.net/Publications/2026/Mar/Renewable-capacity-statistics-2026

Ember link - https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/global-electricity-review-2026/electricity-demand-and-supply-trends/#solar

Note IRENA divides solar into photovoltaic and also thermal or concentrated solar , ie those plants where we use mirrors to focus on the sunlight onto some metal, which stores and radiate it, so solar can work at night. For my purpose, I am focusing on photovoltaic only.

Capacity
2025 Solar PV Capacity Summary:

• World: 2,383,162 MW
• China: 1,200,359 MW (50.4% of world; grew +314,239 MW or +35.5% in 2025 alone)
• EU: 364,740 MW (15.3% of world)
• USA: 210,130 MW (8.8% of world)

China alone added more capacity in 2025 (314 GW) than the entire US total (210 GW). They have done this for several years in a row

The EU has 1.7x the solar capacity of the US.

China alone has 3.3× the EU's capacity and 5.7× the USA's capacity.

Energy production

• Global solar generation in 2025: 2,778 TWh (8.7% of electricity, up from 1.1% in 2015)
• Global growth in 2025: +636 TWh (33% higher than 2024)
• China: 1,175 TWh — #1 globally, more than OECD combined, 40% year-on-year growth
• USA: 389 TWh — #2, +85 TWh in 2025 (28% growth)

Note OECD has 38 countries including several western ones, and their total generation is only 1078 TWh.

While not mentioned, I am pretty China also don't salute Nazis in the great of the people unlike the home of maple syrup.