The world’s largest solar plants

TL;DR

• Solar power has an important role to play in helping countries achieve net zero – it is an abundant resource that is clean, green, and highly scalable.

• China is currently leading the charge in solar power capacity. Not only is it home to the world’s largest solar plant, Golmud Solar Plant, but it is also aiming for its flagship site to have an output of 16 GW within the next five years.

• The top five is rounded out with Bhadla Solar Park and Pavagada Solar Park in India, the UAE’s Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, and Benban Solar Park in Egypt.

• From 2021 to 2022 worldwide solar power generation increased by 26%. PV panels have made efficiency gains, with the global weighted average LCOE for solar PV now 29% lower than the cheapest fossil fuel alternative.

• Challenges to this growth include the monopolisation of solar by developed nations, lack of space, planning restrictions, and a lack of reusable materials in the supply chain.

The detail

As the fight against global warming heats up, the need to identify and adopt renewable energy sources is more acute than ever before.  

According to the World Resources Institute, the production and use of energy is currently responsible for more than three quarters (75.6%) of global emissions. Finding and funding alternative power sources, therefore, has the greatest potential to bring about meaningful change.  

Net zero targets have been adopted by more than 140 countries. China, India, the US, and the EU have all made net zero pledges as they take steps to safeguard the future of the planet. Meanwhile, 196 nations have also signed up to the Paris Agreement. A legally binding international treaty on climate change that came into force in November 2016, the Paris Agreement aims to keep the global average temperature to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels – a goal that will require emissions to be reduced by 45% by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050.  

Has solar always been the answer? 

Solar has, rightly, been identified as a key alternative power resource that can help to advance net zero agendas.  

Sunlight is an abundant and freely available natural energy source. When the photovoltaic (PV) panels of solar power systems are exposed to photons of sunlight, it releases electrons and produces an electric charge that can be fed into the national grid.  

Once conversion has taken place, solar power is renewable, clean, and scalable. It also enables nations and individuals to function with energy independence and can offer long-term financial benefits to the global economy.  

And it is far from being an experimental solution. Solar technology has been around for longer than you might think – the world’s first solar collector cell was designed and constructed by Swiss scientist Horace-Benedict de Sassure in 1767. Just over 70 years later, in 1839, French physicist Edmond Becquerel discovered the PV effect and found that a cell made of metal electrodes could produce more electricity if exposed to light.  

However, it wasn’t until 1954 that the first practical PV cell was developed. Daryl Chaplin, Gerald Pearson, and Calvin Souther Fuller of Bell Labs took Becquerel’s discovery to the next level by devising the first solar cell capable of absorbing and converting enough photons to run everyday electricals.  

Solar at scale 

In 1980, the first megawatt-scale solar power plant was established in Hisperia, California. Unlike domestic solar panels, solar plants such as these provide large-scale energy generation that feeds power directly into the grid.   

As of 2023, solar energy accounted for 5.4% of global electricity generation. The world’s solar capacity was just over 1.5 terawatts (TW) and, globally, we consume approximately 23,900 tWh each year. And it’s a lucrative business. Global Market Insights valued the global ground mounted solar PV market at $21.50 billion in 2023. By 2032, this valuation is expected to surpass $33.7 billion. 

China currently has the world’s largest solar capacity, estimated at approximately 600 gigawatts (GW) at the end of 2023. The US comes in a very distant second place but with 179 GW of installed capacity, the top five being rounded out by Japan, Germany, and India.  

But where will you find the largest individual solar parks? Let’s take a look…  

1. Golmud Solar Park, China 

Given that China is the world’s largest producer of solar powered electricity, it’s perhaps unsurprising to note that it is also home to the world’s largest solar plant.  

Also known as Huanghe Hydropower’s Hainan Solar Park, Golmud is the leading light in China’s solar power industry and integral to the country being able to meet its solar targets. Indeed, China is aiming for the site to achieve a total capacity of 16 GW within the next five years; to put that figure into perspective, one GW can provide power for an hour to one million homes.  

Golmud Solar Park boasts nearly seven million solar panels and has an overall capacity of 2.8 GW. The plant was built in five phases and has been operational since 2020. Requiring an investment of $2.3 billion, Golmud is based in Qinghai Province, operated by a state-owned power generation company and has a storage capacity of 202.8 MW.   

2. Bhadla Solar Park, India 

Coming in a close second place with a total capacity of 2.7 GW, Bhadla Solar Park is India’s solar crown jewel. Its location is tailor-made for solar power generation – set in the Jodhpur district of Rajasthan, Bhadla enjoys approximately 300 days of sunshine each year and only receives 12 inches of rain on average. 

It occupies a much larger site than its Chinese counterpart. Covering an impressive 14,000 acres, Bhadla, it is almost the same size as Manhattan in New York (14,600 acres). Developed in four stages, construction on the plant started in 2016 with power being produced by 2017. Today, it houses more than 10 million solar panels and is predicted to have saved over 15 million tonnes of CO2 over the past seven years.  

3. Pavagada Solar Park, India  

India’s second largest plant has a capacity of 2.05 GW. Located in the Tumkur district of Karnataka, the Pavagada Solar Park was commissioned in December 2019 and cost $2 billion to build.  

It covers 13,000 acres with plans to compete for the title of world’s largest solar plant by expanding its capacity to 3 GW. The site is operated by six different businesses and comprises eight PV installation segments, each with an individual capacity of 250 MW.  

4. Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, UAE 

Playing a key role in Dubai’s Clean Energy Strategy 2050, the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park serves as an environmentally friendly diversification to the UAE’s oil rich economy.  

Ranked as the fourth largest solar park in the world, the plant occupies a vast site of 52,881 acres and has a capacity of 1.53 GW. Currently, its output provides power for 270,000 homes and offsets approximately 1.4 million tonnes of CO2 emissions each year. The emirate is certainly ambitious – by 2030, it seeks to boost capacity to 5 GW.  

5. Benban Solar Park, Egypt  

Africa’s largest solar park, Benban, is situated in Egypt and provides power to over 420,000 households. The plant, which combines 41 smaller solar plants into one across a 9,000-acre site, currently operates with a capacity of 1.61 GW and can produce 6.3 kWh each day.  

An initial investment of $4 billion was required to get the project off the ground. Today, it is managed by the New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA) and stands as an important pillar of the Egyptian government’s Sustainable Energy Strategy 2035.  

Enhancements and efficiencies 

With the world’s solar plants continuing to increase capacity over the past decade, it is no surprise to see global figures rising in tandem.  

In 2022, worldwide solar power generation increased by 26% year on year with solar demonstrating the largest absolute generational growth of all the renewable technologies that same year. 

Technological developments have played their part. Indeed, this growth is happening in parallel with a shift to more efficient monocrystalline wafers, an enhanced technology which now accounts for almost all crystalline PV production. At the same time, more efficient cell designs (passivated emitted and rear cell or PERC) have started to dominate and now command a market share of almost 60%. Legacy modules have an efficiency of around 10%, but module efficiencies of over 20% are now being produced commercially. 

These advancements have been supported by solar power’s very attractive levelized cost of energy (LCOE). Indeed, a 2023 report from Ernst & Young (EY) reveals that despite inflationary pressures, the global weighted average levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) for solar PV is now 29% lower than the cheapest fossil fuel alternative. 

Looking ahead 

According to the International Energy Agency, global solar power generation is currently on track to hit the targets required in a net zero scenario. By 2028, it expects worldwide solar capacity to double to just under 3.9 TW. If this figure is achieved, solar will account for more than 12% of global electricity generation.  

However, an important caveat to this optimistic picture is that maintaining this net zero scenario will mean reaching additional annual capacity goals that are close to three times higher than those seen in 2022… each year until 2030.  

There are challenges to consider. International cooperation will be essential to effectively solve the global climate crisis and the current distribution of the world’s largest solar plants shows that certain territories are already starting to monopolise the market.  

In 2022, the top 10 countries by solar capacity controlled 74% of the global PV market. By 2030, China is expected to account for 60% of renewable energy growth. While its essential that nations and regions such as China, the US, the EU and India continue to implement policies that support and promote solar power, it’s equally important that the technology is rolled out to developing countries.  

Widening the scope when it comes to location may also help solve the challenge of building large scale installations in countries where there is a lack of suitable sites and complicated permit requirements.  

The solar industry is at a precipice. There has been widescale development in the supply chain, improvements in the economic attractiveness of PV, and studies from the likes of Oxford University that show switching to renewables could save £12 trillion by 2050.  

However, if continued growth is to be sustained – and its contribution to net zero maintained – investment in solar power plants needs to be incentivised, funds must be made available for technological research, and stringent regulations must be introduced alongside materials designed with reusability in mind.  

With these safeguards in place and a truly global approach to the commission of future solar power plants, it’s fair to say that the future of solar power looks bright.

— Lew 👋

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The Transition’s work is provided for informational purposes only and should not be construed as advice in any capacity. Always do your own research.