If it feels like the world is being deluged with bad news lately, here's an actual bright spot: the Sun has become the go-to source of energy for tens of millions across the globe.
A recent story by The New Yorker dove into the astonishing growth of solar energy over the past few years. Among other extensive data, the magazine notes that renewables made up 96 percent of demand for new energy throughout the globe in 2024; In the United States, 93 percent of new energy capacity came from solar and wind.
But while renewables writ large are having their day, the speed at which solar energy in particular is growing blows everything else out of the water.
For example, it's now estimated that the world is now installing one gigawatt worth of solar energy infrastructure every 15 hours — or about the output of a new coal plant.
For some historical context, the New Yorker notes that it took 68 years since the invention of the first photovoltaic solar cell in 1954 to construct a single terawatt's worth of solar power. It took just two years to hit the second terawatt in 2024, and the third is expected within mere months.
This explosive growth has been fueled by huge efficiency gains in solar energy output, breakthroughs in manufacturing, and streamlined installation processes. There've also been huge developments in panel recycling, meaning the darker side of solar energy — mineral extraction and panel fabrication — might one day be a thing of the past.
In theory, those gains in production, coupled with ever more-efficient recycling methods, will continue to pay off for years down the line.
As the New Yorker noted, Oxford University researcher Hannah Ritchie recently calculated that the "silver used in one solar panel solar panel built in 2010 would be enough for around five panels today."
Though countries like the US, Germany and Japan are near the top of the leaderboard for solar capacity, the undisputed leader is China, which in 2023 installed more solar infrastructure than the next nine countries combined.
For its part, China is following through on its 10-year plan to triple its solar capacity by 2030 — a target it could hit as early as 2026, if it keeps up the current pace. While that has clear benefits for the environment and health of Chinese citizens, it also serves a geopolitical purpose, namely ending its dependence on American energy sources like oil and coal.
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