#Solar is booming around the world. After taking decades to install the first terawatt, it took just two years to install the second.
This visualisation shows the world's medium- and large-scale solar installations. The globe has been divided into a 50-kilometre grid and shows the solar farm land area (orange = less, yellow = more) as well as the capacity (the height of the bar).
A few things stand out:
➡️ It's clear which parts of Europe have gone big on solar
➡️ In the US, it shows how Texas and California are leading the way
➡️ Everything is dwarfed by the scale of China, with the largest installations in the north and west of the country
➡️ India has seen some significant solar installations and one of the tallest bars corresponds to the 30 GW Khavda Renewable Energy Park which is under construction.
➡️ The Middle East is also picking up with solar farms like Al Dhafra in the UAE.
My only gripe with the visualisation is that it shows more of the northern hemisphere so we don't get to see the progress in places like Chile, Australia and Namibia.
The way the installations are identified is interesting. Climate-tech startup TransitionZero uses machine learning algorithms to identify them from satellite imagery.
The installation of solar has rapidly accelerated in recent years and it will need to continue to do so if solar is to generate a significant chunk of the world's electricity, up from about 7% today.
Credit to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) for the visualisation.
#energy #sustainability #renewables #energytransition