The past 20 years have seen explosive growth in the solar energy market, with global capacity growing from just 1.08 TWh in 2000 to a massive 1289 TWh in 2022. This growth marks a clear shift to sustainable thinking, with more recent increases likely due to widespread targets to reach net-zero emissions across the globe.
Sustainability, environmental impacts and reducing carbon emissions were all key factors that came into mainstream consciousness at the turn of the millennium, increasing interest in solar as an alternative power source to traditional fossil fuels. For example, in 2015 Solar Frontier achieved 17.8% efficiency, in 2015 SunPower achieved 22.8%, in 2016 NREL and Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology achieved 29.8% efficiency and in 2020 NREL researchers developed a six-junction III-V solar cell that can reach 47.1%.
One study found that the median installed price of a residential solar panel system equated to $12.87/W in 2000 but was just $3.84/W in 2021. The same report highlighted how long-term costs of installed solar panels have seen a median reduction of $0.4/W year-on-year.