How many panels are there in one trillion photovoltaic solar energy

3.2. Solar PV total installed costs Fig. 3 shows the variation of the global weighted-average total installed cost of solar PV projects since 2014, followed by 2050. It is seen that the global weighted-average total installed cost of solar PV projects reduced by about 67% from 2652 USD/kW in 2014 to 876 USD/kW in 2022.

In 2022, the most significant expansion in the solar PV market occurred in China, the US, and India, with increments of 86.1 GW, 17.8 GW, and 13.5 GW, respectively (IRENA, 2023). Fig. 2 shows the contribution of each continent in the world's solar PV installed capacity in 2018, followed by 2030 and 2050 based on IRENA's REmap analysis.

As shown in Fig. 1, by 2050, solar PV technology is projected to have the largest installed capacity (8519 GW), making it the second most prominent generation source behind wind power, and it is expected to generate approximately 25% of total electricity needs by 2050. Table 1. Global installed solar capacity from 2013 to 2022. Table 2.

In 2017, China became the largest solar PV market, outperforming Europe, with approximately 1/3 of the world's installed capacity. The world's cumulative installed solar PV power capacity passed 1046 GW in 2022 (IRENA, 2023). Table 3.

The ranking pattern differs in the solar PV category, with South Africa (5.8 GW) and Egypt (1.7 GW) leading as the top two solar power installers. The third position is held by Algeria (0.4 GW), followed by Morocco (0.3 GW).

While the contribution of solar energy to global electricity production remains generally low at 3.6%, it has firmly established itself among other renewable energy technologies, comprising nearly 31% of the total installed renewable energy capacity in 2022 (IRENA, 2023).