The world added about 690 gigawatts of solar power in 2025, 15% more than the year before, according to a report from the International Energy Agency's solar tracking group. Total installed solar capacity worldwide now stands at 2.96 terawatts, enough to theoretically supply around 12% of global electricity use. China installed the most, at 415 GW, followed by India (54 GW), the United States (43 GW), Germany (18 GW) and Pakistan (14 GW).
For homeowners, the more relevant number may be "distributed solar," which covers rooftop and small-scale systems rather than big utility solar farms. This category hit a record 282 GW worldwide in 2025, up from 228 GW in 2024, with growth in China, Pakistan, India, Germany and Brazil. Australia now has the most solar capacity per person of any country, edging past the Netherlands, with Germany close behind. Eight European countries and China have also crossed a threshold of 1,000 watts of solar per resident.
The report also flags a mismatch between how many solar panels factories can make and how many actually get installed, which has pushed down panel prices and squeezed manufacturers' profits. Separately, battery storage paired with solar is expanding fast: annual battery additions in Europe, Canada and the US grew more than 25-fold between 2020 and 2025, reflecting the growing use of batteries to store solar power for use after the sun goes down.
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