The year 2022 is on its way, and as the name would suggest, it’s going to be an important year for solar energy. With the continuous drop in the price of solar panels and electric cars taking over the market, more and more people are looking toward solar energy as a clean and affordable alternative.
In 2022, we’re going to see an increase in installations of solar farms, a significant rise in the number of people buying solar power systems, and a shift toward more renewable energy.
It’s already common practice for people to generate their own electricity using solar power. Some cities have even adopted policies that promote or require the use of solar energy. If you’re looking to invest in solar energy, it’s important to know how much energy you’ll require. This article from SolarEdge provides some insight into how much solar energy is produced per country around the world and how much it costs to generate.
World Rankings
The first thing you’ll want to do is rank the countries in terms of their solar energy production capacity. It’s a good idea to start by looking at the World Bank’s 2021 database, which includes data for 195 countries. The database shows that China produced the most solar energy per year, while India produced the least amount.
According to the data, China produced 101.9 gigawatts (GW) of solar energy in 2021, which is an increase of 32% from the previous year. The country’s solar energy output increased each year between 2019 and 2021, making it one of the best places to invest in in the long term.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) also ranks countries based on their total energy production. According to the EIA, the U.S. produced 18.95 trillion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity in 2021, which is an increase of 13% from the previous year. China and the U.S. were the top two producers of electricity in 2021.
Cost To Generate
Knowing how much solar energy is produced per country is important, but it’s not always the most useful piece of information. For example, if you’re looking to invest in solar farms in the U.S., you’ll want to know how much it costs to generate in your area. This is where local energy costs come in.
It’s important to look at the cost of solar energy in your area because the cost of solar energy varies by a lot from place to place. The cost is mostly determined by several factors, including the type of equipment you’ll need and the amount of energy generated per month. This article from New Energy Times provides an example of how much solar power costs in different parts of the world, showing that solar power is often more expensive in some countries than in others.
If you want to generate your own electricity using solar energy and don’t mind spending a decent amount of money, China and the U.S. are the clear options. However, if you want to invest in solar energy as a cost-effective way of generating electricity and don’t mind living with a bit of a fluctuation in the cost, countries like India and Australia that produce a lot of solar energy are ideal options.
Total Consumption
The last thing you want to do after knowing how much solar energy is produced per country is calculate how much total energy is consumed globally. This is a tricky one because it’s difficult to compare energy production with energy consumption. For example, in the case of solar power, more than half of the energy is generated during the day when the sun is out, but most of the energy is not used at all during the rest of the year. If you want to compare apples to apples, you’ll need to multiply the amount of solar energy produced by the number of hours in the day.
To give you an idea of the scale of this issue, in 2030, the energy produced by solar panels is estimated to outstrip the total amount of energy consumed by the world every year. This is going to be a significant problem if we don’t reduce our energy consumption. Fortunately, there are solutions, and one of them is solar energy. By using more solar power, we can help reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and eventually solve the climate change issue. With time, the cost of solar energy will continue to decline, so even more people will be able to afford clean energy.
Knowing how much solar energy is produced by country is key if you want to know how to generate your own electricity using solar energy. It’s also crucial to know how much total energy is consumed globally, and for that, we recommend you download the World Bank’s country income reports. The information they provide about national income and expenditures is useful in many ways, but it’s particularly useful when trying to calculate how much total energy is consumed in a country. The reports also provide an overview of each country’s legal framework regarding environmental issues, which can help identify the most significant or promising areas within these countries for future investments.