Top 100 Countries by Installed Solar Capacity, 2026

Overview

Installed solar energy capacity measures the maximum net generating capacity of solar power plants and other connected solar installations. It is a stock measure at the end of the year, so it captures the cumulative solar build-out already connected to power systems rather than how much electricity those systems generated during the year.

The top of the ranking is highly concentrated. China leads by a wide margin, with about five times the installed solar capacity of the United States. Behind them come large power systems like India, Japan and Germany, alongside fast-growing markets such as Brazil, Spain, Australia and Italy.

This is not a measure of climate ambition or how sunny a country is. A country with stronger sunlight can rank lower if grid capacity, policy design, financing, land access, interconnection queues or electricity demand have limited deployment.

Top 10 countries by installed solar energy capacity

The Top 10 is not only a list of the sunniest places; it is also a list of large electricity markets, mature incentive systems and countries with major utility-scale or distributed solar deployment.

Capacity is shown in megawatts and rounded as published in the IRENA table.

Methodology

The metric is installed solar energy capacity, measured in megawatts. Values refer to 2024 and are used here as a 2026 snapshot because IRENA Renewable Capacity Statistics 2025 is the latest complete public capacity dataset for this indicator.

Installed capacity is not annual generation, not electricity share, not annual additions and not per-capita capacity. It is also not a pure solar-resource ranking: deployment depends on power demand, grid connection, permitting, financing, policy design, land availability and distributed-generation rules.

Values are shown as whole megawatts as published in the IRENA capacity table. IRENA notes that capacity data are generally installed and connected capacity at the end of the calendar year, and that its underlying data can come from questionnaires, official statistics, industry association reports, other reports and news articles.

Main ranking: Top 100 countries and territories by installed solar energy capacity

Use the controls below to search, filter by region and reorder the table.

Source: IRENA Renewable Capacity Statistics 2025, Solar energy table, 2024 column. Regional aggregates and world totals are not included in the ranking rows.

Insights

What It Means

This ranking shows where solar infrastructure has already been installed and connected. It is a way to compare the scale of national solar build-out and to keep installed capacity separate from annual electricity production.

A high rank does not automatically mean the highest solar share in electricity generation. Capacity must be converted into actual power output through solar resource, system performance, curtailment, storage, grid availability and dispatch conditions. A country can have large capacity but different generation outcomes.

Read this mainly as a measure of scale. China, the United States and India represent very large solar systems. Smaller countries can be policy leaders or have high solar shares while still ranking lower by absolute MW because their electricity systems are smaller.

FAQ

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