Sovereign and dependent territory rows of OWID’s “Solar generation” dataset (top 30 by most recent year). Values in TWh (two decimals). Aggregates excluded.
Chart ready. Press play to start.
How to use this chart
Play/Pause starts and stops the year-by-year animation, the year slider jumps to any year, and the speed selector (0.5×, 1×, 2×) changes playback speed. Each year shows the top 12 entries out of the 30 held in the dataset.
About this ranking
About this metric. “Solar Electricity Generation by Country (Time Series)” reformats data published by Our World in Data (mostly re-published World Bank / UN public statistics) (OWID Grapher slug “solar-energy-consumption”). Values are expressed in TWh.
What to watch. The 2010s handover is the spectacle: Germany and Spain lead the feed-in-tariff era, then China multiplies its output thirty-fold in a decade to generate roughly 40% of the world’s solar power. Few charts on this site climb as steeply.
Caveats. Solar output depends on sunshine, so identical installed capacity yields very different generation across latitudes and climates. Small rooftop systems consumed on-site are not always fully captured in national statistics, so true adoption may run slightly ahead of these figures.
Trends in the data
That Japan led in 2005 looks surprising today. That year Japan generated 1.63 TWh, ahead of Germany at 1.31, the United States at 0.55 and China at 0.08. World solar output was still measured in single-digit TWh. From 1965 to the mid-1980s all 30 countries read 0.00, and the first value above zero is the United States’ 0.01 TWh in 1985. As an indicator that travelled from zero to this scale in sixty years, it has the same shape as wind power.
China’s ascent belongs to the 2010s. In 2010 China stood at 0.70 TWh, a seventeenth of Germany’s 11.96 TWh. By 2020 it reached 261.10 TWh and by 2025 1,174.96 TWh — 1,679× in fifteen years. In 2025 China alone accounts for about 45% of the 2,591.7 TWh generated by the 28 reporting countries. The United States follows at 388.82 TWh, India at 195.99, Japan at 101.06 and Germany at 89.62; even second-placed America is under a third of China.
Japan’s standing has changed with it. From first place in 2005 it is fourth in 2025 at 101.06 TWh. Output surged after the feed-in tariff began in 2012, but India has passed it, accelerating from the late 2010s to 195.99 TWh — roughly twice Japan’s. Germany, at 89.62 TWh, now sits below Japan. The countries that led with feed-in tariffs being overtaken by larger latecomers is the same story that played out in wind.
Two cautions on the numbers. Solar output depends on sunlight, so the same installed capacity produces very different generation at different latitudes and climates — capacity statistics and generation statistics are separate things. And two countries, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, have no 2025 value, so the latest ranking covers 28. At the bottom are Canada at 10.17 TWh, Thailand 9.98 and Portugal 8.86, more than a hundredfold below China.
Trivia quiz
What device converts light directly into electricity in solar power?
The solar (photovoltaic, PV) cell, which uses the photoelectric effect in a semiconductor. (Source)
Why does a solar or wind plant's capacity (kW) differ from its actual output (kWh)?
Because real output varies with sun and wind; the share of full-capacity running is the capacity factor. (Source)
Which policy, paying a fixed price for renewable electricity, helped solar power spread?
The feed-in tariff (FIT), adopted in many countries to kick-start deployment. (Source)