CleanTechnica’s Solar Report Inspires Readers To Teach Each Other

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Our recent CleanTechnica solar report has readers talking! It’s exciting to dig into their comments and to learn how they are sharing their background knowledge about the state and future of solar energy.

Because their comments are so extensive and have built into tens of thousands of words, this article captures and categorizes a lot of them for your ease of reading.

(They’ve also been slightly edited for clarity and grammar.)

Here goes. All are direct quotes; they’ve been compiled from readers as they explored common subtopics on Discus. If, after you’re done reading and yearn for more reader insights, let it be said that there are even more comments than there was room to address in this article. Curious? Read on.

CleanTechnica Readers Respond to the 2026 Solar Survey Report

Prediction models: The installation doubling every two years has been extremely reliable for solar for several decades. There are wobbles in a year or two, but the geometric average has been constant for about 30 years. It’s a solid model for fairly long-term predictions. Interestingly, the model doesn’t work for individual countries, only worldwide. One country will somehow kill demand and then it moves to another country.

Current state of solar: In this millennium the average global rise of solar power generation has been 37% annually. For the last 3 years (2023, 23, 25), global Solar PV installation rate has been increasing by over 30% CAGR. It jumped up from about 24% for the 6 years prior to that. The growth rate of globally installed Solar PV was extremely high to begin with, roughly 73% CAGR from 2007 to 2011, then it slowed to roughly 34% CAGR for 6 years, then slowed to roughly 24% CAGR for 5 years, and now it has jumped back up over 30% CAGR. We wer’e at 17% Wind + Solar PV on the grid for 2025. The majority of new energy installations in 2025 were renewable energy, and the majority planned for 2026 are Solar PV and Battery Storage. I expect it to be significantly higher than 30% in 2026.

Love that home solar! Best thing I did to my home since 2012 — randomly unplanned. I’m not a tree hugger, but simply it works for my needs. I haven’t had power bills since then, out of pocket costs were recovered by year 6, and all is free going forward except the $21 buck monthly wire-to-pole connection fee.

Trends: At the moment we are seeing two strong trends towards rapid increase in solar panel efficiency and from rooftop solar to giant solar farms. The biggest unknowns are whether green hydrogen and data centers will continue to grow like they do. The data centers will likely grow to 5% of global electricity demand by 2030%. IEA experts have been proven ridiculous again and again and then again. Their job is to ensure a stable supply of oil. And that’s all. And until very recently, they totally underestimated renewables.

Solar adoption implications: If things progress as they do now with the same share of rooftop solar, only 30% of all power consumption will be produced by solar in 2030. Worldwide, it will be 45% by 2030 if the trends towards larger solar farms and more efficient solar panels continue — and just 30% of all electricity if we use average efficiency and the current balance between rooftop and solar farms in the deployment onto 2030. That’s still a big share, unimaginable just 10 years ago. 😊

Causal factors that affect solar predictions: The USA war with Iran has increased Solar PV purchasing recently. Even that is not reliable and very hard to predict. We cannot reliably even predict Solar PV will continue to increase at linear rate (i.e. no acceleration) in the near future, since current global events could precipitate global war and a global recession/depression.

The China effect: We must not forget that 60% of all solar is actually China and no one else. Virtually all the growth is there, and coal consumption there continues to grow slightly even as its other largest consumer – steel mills – is cutting production. Without China, the rest of the world is at about 15%. This year has been predicted as the first year in Chinese history where the solar deployment won’t grow. There are some technical reasons and some political.

Battery storage options: Battery storage, LFP in particular, is becoming low enough in cost, $/kWh/cycle, to make Solar PV + overnight Battery storage the lowest cost and more reliable option in sunny places most people live. Sodium Ion, just emerging, is going to be even lower cost than LFP. This is not a one-size-fits-all problem or solution. Lithium Ion batteries only lose a few percent (2% or 3%) of their charge a month, so they are fully capable of storing electricity for much longer.

Why battery storage is the key: It’s a question of economics. Solar PV generated electricity can be used directly, without storage, to cover the primary peak in demand during the middle of the day. When you have enough installed to cover the middle of the day demand, you’re left with another peak in the evening, when people come home from work and turn on the AC/heat, the lights, the cook stove, the TV, etc. That second peak is about 4 hours long, so that is the most cost-effective time to start using additional Solar PV + Battery Storage. As a result, we’ve seen most Battery Storage, for homes and the grid, being installed to meet that 4 hour evening peak in demand.

Supplying the power that’s needed: My point is always there are large areas where Solar PV + Battery Storage can provide most of the power needed, most of the time, at lowest cost. It’s all about the cost of solar power generation. Currently 70% of utility scale solar panels come with single axis tracking and average 150% panel to inverter ratio. Intra solar farm losses to gather the power and to ready it for HVAC or HVDC transmission consumes 10% of the power exiting the inverters. The key reason for the design trend is to stabilize output diurnal and annual. Batteries can harness the power excess and transform it into to a more valuable resource. Also batteries can utilize the transmission better. A number of the solar giants are also battery manufacturers and or BESS manufacturers.

Why is the US falling behind other countries in solar adoption? Yes, it is major problem that USA is a laggard. In the past USA decided on fracking and removed all checks and balances to make that bet possible. In short nearly no regulation. As a consequence about 3.4 million abandoned wells exist in USA. “Drill baby drill” is the Trump motto.

Plugs for plug-in solar: Don’t put it on the roof unless the only choice. Make a semi-portable carport, patio, shed, ground mount, trailer, solar boat, … choose one, instead, that plugs in and eliminates most legal costs. Code ends at the plug, and these are just portable generators. Even renters can own them as can move with them.

Examples: Nexwafe factory in Texas is significant because Nexwafe is based upon Fraunhofer technology and Indian investment. They have announced 30% panels to be ready for shipment before 2030. California: It’s over 35% now, and will be over 40% next year.

Problems that continue to plague the solar industry: US solar is looking fair but plagued by high cost, gouging, especially on batteries for homes. There is no reason grid tie systems cost more than $2/wt and battery systems at $2.75/wt. For some reason solar companies refuse to innovate. For instance if they were not so overcharging, it wouldn’t cost them 30% to get customers. A big part of the blame is Musk/Tesla, forcing battery gouging making 500% profit, and everyone followed his lead to this day. Musk screwed EVs the same way, overcharging making the most expensive ones . That lead gave us the mostly low, bad choices. Luckily, both are finally ending.

Why buy the CleanTechnica report from which these comments arose? Buy the report? That sounds stingy, not the best way to reach a lot of people 😒 It’s only ten bucks… not today but maybe after my wife gets paid this week???

Reply from Carolyn: CleanTechnica pays its staff writers. To analyze survey data and to frame it into a report means lots of hours of research and writing time, for which I was compensated by Zachary and Scott. While we at CleanTechnica are proud of sharing information with readers, we must also pay our bills. So thanks to those of you who spent the relatively small amount to buy the original report. We appreciate your support — a lot!

Resources cited by our readers

“China solar demand down significantly in first two months.” SNEC PV and Exhibition. March 27, 2026.

“Global solar growth to slow in 2026 as China, US scale back – The energy mix.” Solar Now. April 20, 2026.

“Plugging America’s forgotten wells: National Academies study addresses decades long problem.”Sydney O’Shaughnessy. National Academies. July 28, 2025.