distributed across panels currently covering less than 10,000 square kilometers, generated about 1,600 terawatt-hours of energy (one terawatt, or 1 TW, is one trillion watts). This represented about 6 percent of the world’s electricity and just over 1 percent of global primary energy consumption. While this last figure seems marginal, it seems less insignificant when one considers that fossil fuels, which provide most primary energy, are far less efficient. More than half the energy contained in coal and oil is lost as waste heat, rather than converted into electricity or motion.
This extraordinary growth is based on three simple factors. When an industry increases production of a good, it can produce it at a lower price. When prices fall, demand increases. And buy phone number list as demand increases, more is produced. In the case of solar energy, demand was initially supported by subsidies in the early 21st century, which were maintained long enough for prices to decline and then become predictable. This positive feedback loop has led to exponential growth on a global scale.
What makes solar energy revolutionary is precisely this rate of growth. Michael Liebreich, an expert on clean energy technology and economics, explains the speed this way: In 2004, it took the world a year to install a gigawatt of solar capacity (1 GW is a billion watts, or one-thousandth of a terawatt); in 2010, it took a month; in 2016, a week. In 2023, there were days when a gigawatt was installed in a single day. In 2024, according to Bloomberg NEF, 520 to 655 GW of capacity is expected to be installed—up to two “2004s” per day.
This extraordinary growth is supported by the three factors already mentioned. When production of a good increases, its cost falls. This makes products more affordable, further increasing demand, and stimulates an increase in production. In the case of solar, the growth cycle was initially favored by subsidies, but then supported by falling costs and technological efficiency.