
Following up on my three posts last week on Top Wind Power Countries Relative to Electricity Production, Top Wind Power Countries Per Capita, and Top Wind Power Countries Per GDP, this post includes rankings of the top countries in the world for new solar PV power (in 2011) and total installed solar PV power (at the end of 2011) relative to country populations, electricity production, and GDP.
The solar power figures are based off of data from the European Photovoltaic Industry Association’s Global Market Outlook for Photovoltaics until 2016 report just published in May. Country population, electricity production, and GDP statistics were retrieved from the same Wikipedia pages used for the wind power posts and rankings (i.e. they are the same numbers).
For 10 more charts (a bit prettier) from the Global Market Outlook for Photovoltaics until 2016 report, check out: 10 Interesting Solar Power Graphics. Or, for much more information and depth on solar power in any of these countries, check out the EPIA report.
After the graphics and lists of the rankings, I add a little commentary on some of the leading countries (and one not-leading country).
Before getting to the rankings, I’ll just note that there may be some countries not included here that should be — I’m not aware of any in particular, but if you have 2011 solar installation data for a country that you think should be included and is not, send the data to me and I can update these charts and lists. (Note: I’m only including countries with over 1 MW of total installed solar power.)
Of course, solar is a fast-growing energy sector and there might be some big changes once 2012 numbers are in (e.g. India is sure to jump up a bit in the rankings). I’m already looking forward to doing this for 2012, but, unfortunately, that will have to wait another year or so.
On to the rankings, you say? OK, let’s go!
(Note: to enlarge any of the images, click on the image below, and then click on the image again on the next page and you can then zoom in and out from there.)
- Page 1: Top Solar Countries Per Capita (this page)
- Page 2: Top Solar Countries Relative to Electricity Production
- Page 3: Top Solar Countries Per GDP
- Page 4: Top Solar Countries in Absolute Installation Numbers
- Page 5: Commentary & Country Highlights
Top Solar Power Countries Per Capita
Total/Cumulative Solar Power per Capita (end of 2011):
Country — Total Installed Solar Power per Million People (MW):
- Germany — 301.470
- Italy — 214.480
- Czech Rep. — 186.497
- Belgium — 184.271
- Spain — 95.268
- Slovakia — 85.945
- Luxembourg — 58.617
- Greece — 58.493
- Australia — 56.622
- France — 40.689
- Slovenia — 39.372
- Japan — 38.508
- Malta — 28.734
- Switzerland — 27.161
- Israel — 24.875
- Austria — 20.821
- Bulgaria — 18.331
- Portugal — 17.422
- Canada — 16.170
- South Korea — 15.521
- UK — 14.054
- USA — 13.973
- Cyprus — 10.728
- Netherlands — 6.154
- Taiwan — 4.388
- Ukraine — 4.163
- Denmark — 2.865
- China — 2.296
- Sweden — 1.580
- Ireland — 0.654
- Hungary — 0.402
- India — 0.381
- Mexico — 0.356
- Brazil — 0.166
- Romania — 0.158
- Turkey — 0.080
- Poland — 0.078
New Solar Power per Capita (2011):
Country — Total New Solar Power per Million People (MW):
- Italy — 156.126
- Germany — 91.438
- Belgium — 88.939
- Slovakia — 58.950
- Greece — 39.489
- Australia — 33.764
- France — 25.570
- Malta — 23.945
- Slovenia — 22.360
- Israel — 16.499
- Turkey — 14.945
- Bulgaria — 13.579
- Switzerland — 13.203
- UK — 12.592
- Canada — 10.454
- Japan — 10.156
- Luxembourg — 9.769
- Ukraine — 4.119
- Cyprus — 3.576
- South Korea — 1.894
- Denmark — 1.791
- China — 1.633
- Netherlands — 1.195
- Ireland — 0.654
- Czech Rep. — 0.571
- Taiwan — 0.332
- Portugal — 0.320
- Sweden — 0.316
- Hungary — 0.301
- India — 0.248
- USA — 0.169
- Spain — 0.124
- Austria — 0.106
- Romania — 0.105
- Mexico — 0.089
- Brazil — 0.026
- Poland — 0.026
- Page 1: Top Solar Countries Per Capita (this page)
- Page 2: Top Solar Countries Relative to Electricity Production
- Page 3: Top Solar Countries Per GDP
- Page 4: Top Solar Countries in Absolute Installation Numbers
- Page 5: Commentary & Country Highlights
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I don't like paywalls. You don't like paywalls. Who likes paywalls? Here at CleanTechnica, we implemented a limited paywall for a while, but it always felt wrong — and it was always tough to decide what we should put behind there. In theory, your most exclusive and best content goes behind a paywall. But then fewer people read it! We just don't like paywalls, and so we've decided to ditch ours. Unfortunately, the media business is still a tough, cut-throat business with tiny margins. It's a never-ending Olympic challenge to stay above water or even perhaps — gasp — grow. So ...
Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News!
Have a tip for CleanTechnica, want to advertise, or want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.