The entire planet goes today through a major change in terms of development of the renewable energy sector, especially solar energy and wind power because we can’t continue destroying the environment as we did before.

The Trumps administration in the U.S. seems to be more interested to invest in coal and other fossil fuels, instead of investing to increase the renewable energy generation capacity of the country.

However, other countries in Europe and Asia are continuing the investments in renewable energy, mostly onshore and offshore wind power in Europe, and both wind and solar power in Asia, mainly in countries like China and India.

Solar Power in China and India

China is the leader in terms of solar energy generation capacity today.

Being the world’s largest market for solar PV (photovoltaic) panels and solar thermal technology, China has also become the world’s leader in terms of solar energy installations.

In 2015, China has become the world’s largest producer of solar PV power by surpassing Germany, while in 2017, China has become the first country in the world with a generation capacity for solar energy that surpassed 100 GW in installed power.

It seems that China didn’t stopped there because in 2018 the country reached a cumulative installed capacity of 174 GW for solar energy.

Such a drastic increase of generation capacity for solar in just one year, was possible due to the fact that China hosts today the largest and the fourth largest solar parks on the planet.

AEN News recently posted an article about the top largest solar power plants in the world today.

Tengger Desert Solar Park also called the Great Wall of China is the largest photovoltaic solar power plant in the world today with a generation capacity of 1,547 MW (1.54 GW).

Tengger Park occupies in the desert an area of 43 square kilometers, and was commissioned in 2016.

The fourth largest solar park on the planet is also located in China and is called Datong Solar Power Top Runner Base.

This very large solar PV power plant is shaped like a Giant Panda, and is the second largest solar park in China.

The first phase of this massive solar project was recently completed and now the solar park has a generation capacity of 1,000 MW (1 GW).

When the entire project will be finished, the Datong Solar Power Top Runner Base will reach an output of 3,000 MW (3 GW).

India is another Asian country that decided to massively invest in solar energy.

The largest solar PV (photovoltaic) power station in India today is the Bhadla Solar Park (the largest in the country) and the second largest on the planet.

The solar park occupies an are of 40 square kilometers in Bhadla, Phalodi tehsil, Jodhpur district, Rajasthan, India.
In 2018, this huge solar PV power station had an output of 1,365 MW (1.36 GW).

The entire project has four phases, and when all of them will be completed, the solar park will reach an output that will exceed 2,255 MW (2.25 GW).

Solar power in United States

The U.S. is way behind China in terms of solar power generation capacity (51 GW in installed power in 2017).

Due to the fact that the Trump administration wants to revive the coal sector instead of continuing the fight against climate change by increasing the country’s capacity to generate solar and wind power, it is likely that the gap between

China and the U.S. in terms of renewable energy will increase even more.

It is true that compared to coal or natural gas, solar energy can be more expensive, but let’s not forget that solar technology becomes cheaper every year and can be considered an investment into our future because the Sun is the main source of clean energy for mankind in this corner of the universe.