It’s the S-Curve, stupid: New model predicts half of world’s energy will come from solar by 2035
In the hazy first weeks of 2025 – with Los Angeles burning, Trump headed back to the White House, and Australia approaching an election that could be disastrous for climate and renewables – solar PV remains an unbroken ray of hope.
This remarkable technology, which owes a good deal of its modern success to Australian researchers and universities, dominates the new energy landscape all around the globe, growing at a rate that continues to defy expectations, all the while becoming cheaper, more efficient and faster to deploy.
According to estimates from the Global Solar Council and SolarPower Europe, the world reached the stunning cumulative total of 2 terawatts (TW) of installed solar capacity in November last year – a milestone that came just two years after the first terawatt mark, which took 68 years to notch up.
In Australia, rooftop solar alone regularly supplies the majority of daytime power in South Australia’s grid and in other state networks is gearing up to do the same.
