Global Distribution Of Solar & Wind Installations In 2020

Dunnett, S., Sorichetta, A., Taylor, G. et al. via Nature shared under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0

The map above shows the following:

“The global distribution of solar (a) and wind (b) installations. Solar installations represent those outside of urban cells and more than 1 hectare in panel area. Wind installations represent those outside of urban and water cells and with more than four turbines. ‘Area’ refers to landscape area for wind and panel area for solar.”

It comes from this article in Nature which has some interesting findings such as:

• The estimated share of renewables in global electricity generation was more than 26% by the end of 2018
• Solar photovoltaic (PV) panels and wind turbines are by far the biggest drivers of the rapid increase
• Globally, in 2018, 100 gigawatts of solar PV were installed, contributing 55% of new renewable energy capacity; wind contributed the second largest share, with 28% of new renewable capacity.
• Replacing US hydroelectric dams with solar PV could produce equivalent power output on just 13% of the land

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