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Global solar energy is crossing a historic threshold. A decade ago it was barely relevant on a global scale, providing only 1% of the world's electricity.
By 2026, it will almost certainly reach 10% and surpass nuclear power, a mainstay of electricity generation since the late 1970s.
On a global scale, solar electricity generation will quietly surpass nuclear power in 2025, according to statistics from the UK-based energy think tank Ember.
And a BBC analysis of Ember data for the 12 months to September 2026 shows that solar is already clearly outperforming it, producing 13% more electricity.
“Solar power generating more electricity than all the nuclear power plants in the world is a pretty incredible statistic, for sure,” says Dave Jones, co-founder of Ember.
From China's massive solar parks to the recent boom fueled by rising oil prices, the extraordinary rise of solar energy has defied all expectations.
Here are seven reasons why it has become a seemingly "unstoppable" force and how it could evolve in the future.
An underrated force
“Solar energy is now the driver of the energy transition,” says Jan Rosenow, professor of energy and climate policy at the University of Oxford.
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Solar has become the fastest growing source of new electricity in history and by far the largest source of new electricity generation globally. By 2025, it will cover three-quarters of the increase in global electricity demand, surpassing wind power, which also continues to grow, although at a somewhat slower pace.
"It was unexpected," Rosenow says. According to him, conventional projections have underestimated the development of solar energy year after year. Organizations like the International Energy Agency (IEA) assumed linear growth and slow cost reduction, and they were wrong on both counts.
During 2026, multiple sources indicate that solar generation will far exceed nuclear generation globally. While nuclear generation has remained more or less stable since 2000, solar generation has multiplied by about 2,700 times.
Ember data shows that solar generation narrowly surpassed nuclear generation in 2025. In 2026, it will almost certainly surpass it by a wide margin.
"Shockingly cheap"
Solar energy, a technology that has matured for about 15 years, became the cheapest source of electricity in history in 2020.
Since then, the sector has expanded, efficiency has increased and the amount of silicon and silver used in panels has been reduced, driving prices even lower, Jones explains.
"The enormous scale of Chinese manufacturing and current overcapacity have driven module prices to historic lows," says Rosenow.
In particular, the sharp drop in panel prices between 2023 and 2024 ushered us into what Jones calls the era of "shockingly cheap" solar energy.
“A panel alone is incredibly cheap,” he says. "It costs well under $100 and will continue to generate electricity for 30 or 40 years with virtually no intervention."
But the benefits are not only economic. Researchers have estimated that increased wind and solar generation in the United States contributed $249 billion in climate and health benefits between 2019 and 2022.
Global adoption
China remains, by far, the largest solar power in the world, but it is not the only protagonist.
Although the United States has imposed various tariffs on solar products, it remains the second country in installed capacity, which also continues to skyrocket, especially in states won by Donald Trump in the 2024 elections.
Currently, the US has enough solar capacity to power more than a third of its homes.
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"No doubt, tariffs and other federal policies that limit renewable energy growth will raise costs and slow expansion from what we might have seen," says Alicia Zhao, a decarbonization expert at the University of Maryland.
"However, economics is one of the main reasons solar power has grown so quickly. Even with higher costs, it remains one of the cheapest forms of new electricity generation in the United States. And it continues to be built regardless of political divisions."
For its part, India is moving away from fossil fuels much faster than China did.
In the last two years, new solar capacity has covered 60% of the increase in its electrical demand.
In Australia, more than four million homes now have solar panels on their roofs, or more than a third of all homes.
Unreliable fossil fuels
Countries such as Pakistan and Lebanon have also begun installing solar energy at breakneck speeds, while in Africa about 100,000 solar panels are being installed a day.
In many places, rising diesel prices, driven by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and the war between the United States, Israel and Iran, have further tipped the balance in favor of solar energy.
This is especially evident in many African countries where home diesel generators are essential due to unreliable power grids. Alternatively, rooftop solar panels, almost all imported from China, have really taken off.
Ethiopia has even banned the import of gasoline and diesel cars to reduce its dependence on oil and pollution, Jones notes.
Solar energy is also rapidly supplying new electricity where fossil fuel-based grids cannot meet demand.
The battery revolution
Solar energy can only be produced during the day, when the sun shines. To convert it into electricity available at any time it must be combined with batteries.
Fortunately, batteries have undergone their own cost revolution, transforming their ability to support the expansion of solar energy.
"The combination of solar and storage is already usually cheaper than building new fossil plants in sunny regions," explains Rosenow.
"Batteries have largely solved the daily problem of moving solar energy generated at midday into the evening hours."
According to Rosenow, solar energy went from being Pakistan's fifth largest source of electricity in 2023 to becoming the largest in 2025.
In California, for example, the combination of solar and batteries covered, on average, more than a quarter of electricity demand between 7:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. during the first half of 2026.
States like Vermont are deploying integrated systems of grid-connected home batteries, typically associated with solar panels.
However, obstacles remain to long-term storage, necessary for prolonged periods of cloud cover or to compensate for seasonal differences.
For this reason, adds Rosenow, the integration of solar energy into the electrical system remains essential.
Pakistan has become a striking example of the solar revolution due to its extraordinarily rapid expansion. In 2019, solar energy provided less than 2% of its electricity; today it represents 24%, driven by a combination of expensive and unstable grid electricity and cheap panels imported from China.
"What's really incredible about Pakistan is that most of the solar boom has come straight out of people's pockets," explains Jones. "People can afford it without taking out loans."
A similar story is unfolding in other countries in the so-called "sunbelt," from Lebanon to Nigeria.
"Solar energy allows households to act without waiting for governments or power companies," says Rosenow. "In times of uncertainty, that speed and independence are extremely valuable."
Electrify everything
Solar energy is considered a key piece of progress towards the electrification of the economy, replacing fossil fuels in sectors that did not traditionally depend on electricity, such as transportation using electric vehicles.
Electrification has been selected as one of the major themes of the UN climate negotiations held this year in Türkiye.
"That's where solar is going: not just to be the queen of electricity, but the queen of all energy," Jones insists.
But all of this requires planning, Julia Souder, executive director of the Long Duration Energy Storage Council, recently warned.
"There is an inherent danger in uncontrolled electrification, and adding huge new loads without built-in flexibility creates a fragile system," he wrote in an article for the international network Ren21. "Electrification is not automatically resilient."
According to Rosenow, the current limits of solar energy are not panels or costs, but rather electrical grids, storage and the speed with which demand is electrified.
"The big question is no longer whether solar energy will continue to grow, but whether our electrical systems and institutions can keep pace."
In the US, data centers and electrification are driving growth in electricity demand that has not been seen for decades, explains Zhao.
"Renewable energies already represent more than 90% of the new installed capacity in the United States," he says.
"The need for secure, rapidly deployable electricity could create a critical opportunity for renewables to continue growing even without support from the current federal government."
Expanding technology
In recent years, plug-in solar panels, known as "balcony solar", have spread rapidly throughout Germany.
They generate less electricity than roof panels, but they introduce it directly into homes through a conventional socket.
They have already been approved in several countries and American states, including California.
Meanwhile, agrivoltaics, which combines food production with solar generation, is being presented as a solution to concerns about land use by large solar installations.
In Kentucky, USA, a solar plant pays a local farmer to graze sheep between the panels, producing pasture-raised meat while keeping grass and weeds in check.
Other technologies, such as floating solar plants, mirror plants, perovskite panels and solar windows, could also see significant growth in the coming years.
What's next for solar energy?
In 2026, global solar capacity will continue to grow, although the pace of expansion could slow for the first time, according to Jones.
The main reason is in China. Last summer it modified its management and support system for new solar installations, which caused a wave of projects in 2025 to benefit from the previous pricing regime.
In the rest of the world, however, the situation is different.
"If you exclude China, more panels are being installed this year than last year," Jones says.
The International Energy Agency predicts that by 2030 solar generation will have doubled compared to 2025 levels and will surpass hydroelectric power to become the third largest source of electricity on the planet.
"Where grid electricity is expensive and unreliable, economic logic continues to push people towards solar energy," concludes Rosenow.
"There is one caveat: if Chinese solar panels become difficult to import, this expansion will not happen as quickly," he adds.
There has been a lot of bad news about the climate lately. The 1.5°C global limit set in Paris in 2015 is extremely likely to be exceeded; The world is experiencing increasing climate impacts and is approaching several climate tipping points throughout this century.
However, the success of solar energy shows that we are also advancing in ways no one had anticipated. A decade ago, "no one even imagined this could happen," says Jones, noting that the growth of clean electricity has directly led to a reduction in coal plant construction.
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