India surpassed Japan to claim the title of the world's third-largest solar power generator in 2023 as it has climbed from ninth ranking in 2015, according to a report from global energy think tank Ember.
On Wednesday, the Global Electricity Review 2024 was published which offers a comprehensive examination of the global power landscape in 2023, drawing on data from individual countries.
Accompanying this review is the world's inaugural open dataset on electricity generation in 2023, encompassing 80 nations that represent 92 percent of global electricity demand, along with historical data from 215 countries.
"India's growth in solar generation in 2023 pushed the country past Japan to become the world's third-largest solar power generator. It has climbed from ranking ninth in 2015," the report said.
In 2023, solar energy achieved a milestone as it contributed 5.5 percent to global production and India alone generated 5.8 percent of its electricity from solar energy.
India experienced the world's fourth-largest surge in solar generation in 2023, adding 18 Terawatt hours (TWh) to its capacity, following China (+156 TWh), the United States (+33 TWh), and Brazil (+22 TWh). These top four countries collectively accounted for 75 percent of globalsolar growth that year.
"A renewables-powered future is now becoming a reality. Solar power, in particular, is growing at an unprecedented pace", said Aditya Lolla, Ember's Asia Programme Director. For the nineteenth consecutive year, solar maintained its status as the fastest-growing electricity source worldwide, outpacing coal in new electricity additions by more than twofold in 2023.
The trajectory of solar energy has been accelerating rapidly. Global solar generation in 2023 exceeded six times that of 2015, with India experiencing a seventeenfold increase during the same period. India's share of solar generation surged from 0.5 percent in 2015 to 5.8 percentin 2023. (TOI)
