In 2024, something amazing happened—the world invested twice as much money in clean energy—$2.1 trillion—as in fossil fuels.
Not long ago, there was a lot of wishing and hoping for a renewable energy revolution, but now the trends show that solar will be the dominant clean energy source in the world in the not-too-distant future.
In 2024, solar’s share of global clean energy investment reached $500 billion, more than all other generation technologies combined.
In the US, 64% of the new generating capacity added to the grid in 2024 was solar, a total of 40 gigawatts.
There are now 5.3 million solar systems installed with a capacity of 220 gigawatts in the US. That’s enough solar energy to power 37.6 million households.
Reaching for the Sun
Solar’s meteoric rise looks unstoppable. After growing 30% per year for four straight years, residential solar sales slowed in 2024. With fewer panels installed in many markets, “companies’ valuations declined. This led to large capital injections, major bankruptcies, and job losses,” says a February 2025 report by McKinsey & Co.
However, residential solar’s long-term prospects remain solid. “We see that residential solar is poised for steady growth, especially for companies that take the right steps now in preparation to enter the next phase,” says the McKinsey & Company report.
It may seem hard to grasp the significance of the solar numbers today, but they would surely have come as nothing short of shock and awe to anyone 30 years ago.
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100 Times Cheaper, Twice as Efficient
Gordon Howell is an engineer and a solar pioneer who installed the first grid-connected solar system in western Canada in 1995. His 2.3-kilowatt solar system (left photo, above) consisted of 36 60-watt solar modules that cost $25,000 for just the modules.
In 2024, he replaced them with 22 445-watt panels (right photo, above) for a total of 9.8 kilowatts. The modules cost just $2,600.
On a per-watt basis, his 2024 modules are 43 times cheaper than his 1995 modules. And at 21.8% efficiency, the new modules are twice as efficient as the old ones.
Moreover, if Gordon had bought the original 1995 modules in 1975 instead of 1995, he would have paid $230,000 for his small 2.3-kilowatt solar system.
A Versatile Investment
Solar is now the cheapest way to produce electricity in the world. And unlike almost any other form of generation, solar works at all scales. It can power small electronic devices, homes, businesses, or the electricity grid itself at utility scale.
[T]housands [of solar businesses] have sprung up over the last decade to design, build, and install solar systems. … The economics of solar are good at any scale these days.
Brian Scott is the founder and CEO of Solar Dev. Inc., a small solar company in Alberta.
“We're outgrowing the oil industry. I was in the oil industry 12 years ago and very much under the impression that solar was maybe oversold.”
“When I learned more, and prices came down, I became obsessed with it. It's an exciting time, and we're only going to see growth from this point forward,” says Scott.
Scott’s business is one of thousands that have sprung up over the last decade to design, build, and install solar systems. There are now more than 10,000 solar businesses in the US, employing almost 280,000 people.
The economics of solar are good at any scale these days.
Clean energy had another record-breaking year in 2024
“We're at a point where it makes economic sense. It’s not unrealistic to see an eight-year payback,” says Scott, talking about home systems. This, of course, varies considerably by market and depends on local microgeneration regulations.
“We’re seeing 25- and 30-year material warranties, and we're seeing much better production on these modules,” says Scott.
After three decades, there is an estimated 13% depreciation in performance, he notes. This means if a solar system is paid for after eight years, there are another 17 years of free production while still under warranty.
Solar Innovations
Bifacial solar modules are gaining popularity. The modules can gather light from both sides of the module, including reflected light, and can increase production by 10% to 20% and as high as 30% for only a 7% cost increase.
They are expected to have 35% share of the solar market by 2028.
Solar trackers are another innovation becoming common.
Single-axis trackers tilt on a vertical axis to optimize their angle to the sun, increasing production by around 15%.
Dual-axis [solar] trackers tilt both vertically and horizontally, boosting production by 45% to 50%.
Dual-axis trackers tilt both vertically and horizontally, boosting production by 45% to 50%. Though they are more expensive and have higher maintenance costs, many producers use them to maximize solar output. Typically used in ground-mount systems, they are rare on homes or commercial buildings. However, DIY enthusiasts are creating manual trackers with simple seasonal positions.
In Canada’s north, the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation uses simple wooden racks with two tilt positions to power their hunting cabins in the northern wilderness.
Solar is a game changer for Raymond Cardinal, who has a cabin out on the Peace Athabasca Delta in Canada’s north. It used to take 20 liters of gas to run the generator for 24 hours at the cabin. These days, he hauls much less expensive gas across Lake Athabasca to the cabin, and best of all, solar is silent in the wilds of the north.
“My wife loves that,” says Cardinal.
Solar’s Business Impact
Solar is disrupting the electric utility industry like no other technology ever has.
Dan Balaban owned a small software company that serviced the oil industry, but he really wanted to get involved with renewable energy. He founded Greengate Power as a small renewable energy startup in Alberta’s oil capital, Calgary, Alberta 14 years ago.
In the early days, the economics of renewable energy were terrible, but despite that, he found a way to build the Blackspring Ridge wind project. At 300 megawatts, it was the largest wind power project in Canada at the time.
Then, a decade later, he built the Travers Solar Project near Vulcan, Alberta, at 465 megawatts, the largest in Canadian history.
And here’s the kicker—Greengate presold 80% of the solar electricity production to Amazon in a 20-year contract before the project was completed, making solar a great investment.
As of 2023, corporate [solar] procurement was responsible for 25% of the renewable energy development in the world.
It turns out renewable energy procurement is big business. As of 2022, 12.4 gigawatts of renewable energy, mostly solar, was contracted to Amazon alone, one of hundreds of companies purchasing clean energy in the US.
As of 2023, corporate procurement was responsible for 25% of the renewable energy development in the world.
Of course, solar and wind are easy ways to produce very cheap electricity until there is too much excess electricity being produced, especially outside evening peaks or other high-demand periods.
Coming Boom of Energy Storage
This is where energy storage comes in.
California, Texas, and Australia are investing heavily in energy storage to shift excess electricity to high-demand periods.
In 2024, Australia installed more battery storage capacity than solar and wind capacity combined.
In California, a similar trend is emerging, where energy storage capacity ballooned in 2024 to reach 13,391 megawatts total.
And it’s starting to work. In 2024, the state was able to power the grid with 100% renewable energy for 45 days.
Solar and Virtual Power Plants
California is also where the largest virtual power plant at 500 megawatts is operating. About 265,000 small solar producers have been enlisted in the program. The idea is simple: Tie together many small, decentralized energy resources, and pool the energy using software to help shave peaks in demand and keep the lights on.
Peaking electricity is valuable, and participants can be paid up to $2 per kilowatt-hour for energy shared with the grid on demand. This virtual power plant was accessed 16 times by the grid in 2024, helping avoid a grid crisis on four separate occasions.
Virtual power plant initiatives are springing up across the US and Canada.
Fuse Power Management is a startup company working on linking fleets of electric buses as virtual power plants.
With the rise of electric vehicles, home solar, and battery storage, virtual power plants are expected to play a bigger and bigger role in stabilizing the grid over time.
Artificial Intelligence is … expected to play a pivotal role in the optimization of solar energy production and maintenance, especially in predicting supply and demand and ensuring energy storage is used in the most strategic and financially rewarding ways.
Artificial Intelligence is also expected to play a pivotal role in the optimization of solar energy production and maintenance, especially in predicting supply and demand and ensuring energy storage is used in the most strategic and financially rewarding ways.
According to Sabine Erlinghagen, CEO of Siemens Grid Software in Europe, in a 2024 interview with GreenEnergyFutures.ca, AI and software can be used to radically increase the utilization of existing grid infrastructure without massive and expensive upgrades.
AI and software can help intelligently move consumption and production around with the help of storage, she says. It can even predict human behavior and many other factors to efficiently manage the existing grid and enable the integration of more EVs and solar.
The Home Power Plant
AI is being enlisted even at the home level as grid operators realize that it’s one of the keys to success in managing a grid with millions of decentralized energy resources on it (such as EVs, heat pumps, and solar systems).
As more homes are solar-powered, and their owners are charging EVs, new AI-powered energy management devices are emerging.
DCBEL is a Canadian company that is producing an innovative unit that has a dual-port DC fast vehicle charger, a solar inverter, and an AI-powered energy management system all in one device. The system can intelligently manage solar production when the energy is used, when it is stored in the EV battery, or exported to the grid.
And with connectivity to the grid, devices like this can become part of a demand-side management system for the grid.
The units are in high demand in California, Texas, and New York, where grid operators and home and business owners are looking for solutions to manage grids with hundreds of thousands of decentralized energy resources.
A Bright Future for Solar Jobs
The US Department of Energy has built scenarios that include business as usual and two decarbonization scenarios.
Solar, batteries, and wind power dominate in all scenarios. If the recent past is any indication, even modest efforts to focus on renewable energy and decarbonize will result in a grid dominated by solar in the US and around the world.
This also means solar jobs will increase from the current 280,000 people in the US to somewhere between 500,000 and 1.5 million by 2035.
Under pressure to increase jobs in the US, the solar industry has also recently reached an important milestone of 50 gigawatts of domestic solar module production capacity.
The solar future looks bright, with more power to turn on lights, fuel electric cars, and even heat homes with heat pumps.
*David Dodge is an environmental journalist, photojournalist, and the host and producer of GreenEnergyFutures.ca, a series of micro-documentaries on clean energy, transportation, and buildings. He’s worked for newspapers and published magazines and produced more than 350 award-winning EcoFile radio programs on sustainability for CKUA Radio.
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