Contents
- Solar electricity share statistics: global solar’s annual generation share
- Solar electricity share statistics: country shares in major power markets
- Solar electricity share statistics across European countries
- Solar electricity share statistics by month and time of day
- Solar electricity share statistics in Türkiye and fast-growing markets
- Solar electricity share statistics in the first half of the year
- Sources
Solar electricity share statistics: global solar’s annual generation share
Solar supplied 8.7% of global electricity generation in 2025, compared with 1.1% in 2015. These are annual shares of total electricity generation. They show how the global generation mix changed over that decade, but they do not describe an individual country’s mix or solar’s contribution during a particular hour. Source: Ember, Global Electricity Review 2026: Electricity demand and supply trends
A separate chapter in Ember’s 2026 review reports the 2025 global annual average as 9%. That figure is presented alongside the monthly record of 11% in May 2025. The 8.7% and 9% values come from distinct reported passages; each is retained here with its original precision and context rather than treated as a newly calculated figure. Source: Ember, Global Electricity Review 2026: Global Electricity Insights
| Global measure | Period | Solar share |
|---|---|---|
| Annual electricity generation share | 2015 | 1.1% |
| Annual electricity generation share | 2025 | 8.7% |
| Annual average reported in the global insights chapter | 2025 | 9% |
| Monthly electricity share | May 2025 | 11% |
The table keeps annual and monthly measures distinct. A monthly peak can be higher than an annual average because the periods differ; the figures do not by themselves explain the reasons for the difference. Sources: Ember, Global Electricity Review 2026: Electricity demand and supply trends; Ember, Global Electricity Review 2026: Global Electricity Insights
Solar electricity share statistics: country shares in major power markets
The annual 2025 figures vary across major power markets. Solar supplied 8.6% of United States electricity generation, 11.1% of China’s generation and 9.4% of India’s electricity mix. The sources use the stated scopes, so the India figure is described as a share of its electricity mix, while the United States and China figures are stated as generation shares. Source: Ember, Global Electricity Review 2026: Major Countries and Regions
For the United States, Ember reports that solar’s share rose by 1.7 percentage points in 2025 compared with 2024, reaching 8.6%. This is a change expressed in percentage points, alongside a 2025 share expressed as a percentage. Source: Ember, Global Electricity Review 2026: Major Countries and Regions
India’s reported solar share was 5.3% in 2022 and 9.4% in 2025. Pakistan’s annual share was 6.6% in 2022 and 18.8% in 2025. These paired observations show the reported values at the listed endpoints; they do not provide annual values for every intervening year. Sources: Ember, Global Electricity Review 2026: Major Countries and Regions; Ember, Global Electricity Review 2026: Electricity demand and supply trends
| Market | Period | Solar share and reported scope |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 2025 | 8.6% of electricity generation |
| China | 2025 | 11.1% of electricity generation |
| India | 2022 | 5.3% of the electricity mix |
| India | 2025 | 9.4% of the electricity mix |
| Pakistan | 2022 | 6.6% of electricity |
| Pakistan | 2025 | 18.8% of electricity |
Smaller markets in the same annual dataset also recorded high solar shares in 2025: Hungary reached 27%, and Chile reached 25%. Their 2024 figures were 24% for Hungary and 23% for Chile. The source reports these as annual solar shares of electricity generation. Source: Ember, Global Electricity Review 2026: Electricity demand and supply trends
These examples make clear that country shares are not interchangeable with global shares. Each describes solar within a particular electricity system and period. The cited figures do not provide a consistent basis here for ranking every country or attributing differences to any single factor. Sources: Ember, Global Electricity Review 2026: Major Countries and Regions; Ember, Global Electricity Review 2026: Electricity demand and supply trends
Solar electricity share statistics across European countries
Solar supplied 13.1% of EU electricity in 2025, compared with 5.3% in 2020. Ember’s review reports the 2025 annual figure as an estimate of gross generation, based on monthly net generation applied to the latest gross baseline. Monthly data for EU countries draw on multiple national and regional sources, so the estimate has a defined methodology and should be read in that context. Source: Ember, Global Electricity Review 2026: Major Countries and Regions
For comparison, the same review reports 2025 solar shares of 8.6% for the United States and 11.1% for China, alongside the EU’s 13.1%. This places the EU above both of those cited values for that year. Source: Ember, Global Electricity Review 2026: Major Countries and Regions
Within Europe, Hungary’s 2025 annual solar share was 27%. Greece and Spain each recorded 22%. These country observations provide a closer look at variation within the region, while the EU figure represents the union-wide measure and is not an average of just these three countries. Sources: Ember, Global Electricity Review 2026: Electricity demand and supply trends; Ember, Türkiye Electricity Review 2026: Wind and Solar
| European measure | Period | Solar share |
|---|---|---|
| European Union | 2020 | 5.3% |
| European Union | 2025 | 13.1% |
| Hungary | 2025 | 27% |
| Greece | 2025 | 22% |
| Spain | 2025 | 22% |
The annual figures describe solar’s share of electricity generation for the stated geography and year. They do not indicate the share at every hour, and the EU estimate’s gross-generation basis is a methodological detail to keep in view when interpreting it. Sources: Ember, Global Electricity Review 2026: Major Countries and Regions; Ember, Türkiye Electricity Review 2026: Wind and Solar
Solar electricity share statistics by month and time of day
At the global level, solar supplied 11% of electricity in May 2025, a monthly record in Ember’s global insights chapter. The same passage compares this with a 9% average for 2025. The monthly figure and year-average figure use different time spans, so they describe different views of the generation mix. Source: Ember, Global Electricity Review 2026: Global Electricity Insights
Hourly shares can differ substantially from annual or monthly shares. On the average day in June 2025, solar reached 91% of Hungary’s generation at 1 pm. The cited previous reported midday maximum was 67% at noon in June 2024. These are time-of-day observations with different clock times, rather than annual generation shares. Source: Ember, Global Electricity Review 2026: Global Electricity Insights
| Measure | Period and time scope | Reported value |
|---|---|---|
| Global monthly electricity share | May 2025 | 11% |
| Global annual average electricity share | 2025 | 9% |
| Hungary generation share | Average day in June 2025, 1 pm | 91% |
| Hungary previous reported midday generation maximum | June 2024, noon | 67% |
India’s measure is different again: solar output peaked at over 50 GW at midday during the average day in 2025. GW measures power output, not a percentage share of generation. It belongs beside the time-of-day figures as a measure of solar’s output profile, but it cannot be read as a generation-share percentage. Source: Ember, Global Electricity Review 2026: Global Electricity Insights
These observations capture several distinct windows: a global monthly share, an annual average, country-level midday shares and an output level. Keeping those measures separate helps avoid treating a high midday share as representative of an entire year. Source: Ember, Global Electricity Review 2026: Global Electricity Insights
Solar electricity share statistics in Türkiye and fast-growing markets
Türkiye’s annual solar share of electricity generation was 4.7% in 2022 and 10.5% in 2025. The review notes that the 2025 share rose despite increasing electricity demand. The figures establish the reported shares and the demand context; they do not quantify how much of the share change is attributable to any one factor. Source: Ember, Türkiye Electricity Review 2026: Wind and Solar
Solar generation in Türkiye was 18.4 TWh in 2023 and 37.3 TWh in 2025. TWh is a generation volume, whereas the percentages above are shares of electricity generation. The two measures answer different questions: one records solar electricity produced over a year, and the other records its portion of the system’s generation. Source: Ember, Türkiye Electricity Review 2026: Wind and Solar
| Türkiye measure | Period | Reported value |
|---|---|---|
| Solar share of electricity generation | 2022 | 4.7% |
| Solar share of electricity generation | 2025 | 10.5% |
| Solar electricity generation | 2023 | 18.4 TWh |
| Solar electricity generation | 2025 | 37.3 TWh |
| Combined wind and solar share of electricity generation | 2025 | Approximately 22% |
Wind and solar together supplied approximately 22% of Türkiye’s electricity generation in 2025. This is a combined share, not a solar-only figure. Keeping the combined measure separate matters when comparing it with Türkiye’s 10.5% solar share or with solar-only values for other countries. Source: Ember, Türkiye Electricity Review 2026: Wind and Solar
Solar electricity share statistics in the first half of the year
For January–June 2025, solar supplied 8.8% of global electricity generation. The corresponding first-half share was 6.9% in 2024 and 3.8% in 2021. These are half-year shares, not annual figures, and should be compared with other observations covering the same six-month span. Source: Ember, Global Electricity Mid-Year Insights 2025: Global Analysis
| Global first-half measure | Period | Solar share |
|---|---|---|
| Electricity generation share | January–June 2021 | 3.8% |
| Electricity generation share | January–June 2024 | 6.9% |
| Electricity generation share | January–June 2025 | 8.8% |
The country count above a stated threshold also changed across these periods. At least 29 countries generated over 10% of their electricity from solar between January and June 2025. The count was 22 countries in the same period of 2024 and 11 countries in the first half of 2021. The 2025 wording is “at least 29,” while the earlier counts are reported as 22 and 11. Source: Ember, Global Electricity Mid-Year Insights 2025: Global Analysis
These counts refer to countries exceeding 10% solar share in available monthly data during each first half of the year. They are not country shares themselves, and the threshold count does not show how far above 10% each country was. Taken together, the half-year global shares and country counts offer two views of solar penetration: the global generation mix and the number of countries crossing a specified share threshold. Source: Ember, Global Electricity Mid-Year Insights 2025: Global Analysis
Sources
- Global Electricity Review 2026: Electricity demand and supply trends — Ember
- Global Electricity Review 2026: Major Countries and Regions — Ember
- Global Electricity Review 2026: Global Electricity Insights — Ember
- Global Electricity Mid-Year Insights 2025: Global Analysis — Ember
- Türkiye Electricity Review 2026: Wind and Solar — Ember