The world added more than 200GW of new utility-scale solar PV capacity in 2025, marking the second consecutive year that the world exceeded this threshold of new utility-scale solar additions.
This is according to figures published today by Wiki-Solar, which breaks down the addition of new utility-scale capacity—defined as larger than 4MW—by region.
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As has been the case for the last decade, Asia dominated new capacity additions in 2025, adding more than 150GW of new capacity, more than was added globally in 2023, and more than global numbers for 2021 and 2022 combined. By the fourth quarter of 2025, China and India ranked first and third globally for cumulative installed capacity, with 446GW and 109.6GW, respectively.
North and central America and Europe rank second and third, respectively for new capacity additions, as has been the case for several years now. According to Wiki-Solar, the top four countries in cumulative operational capacity at the end of 2025—China, the US, India and Spain—are the same as at the start of 2025, reflecting sustained growth in the world’s leading solar markets. 2025 capacity additions, by region, are shown in the graph below.
There was movement in the country rankings outside of the top four. Japan boasted the seventh-largest operational solar sector at the end of the year, up from the 15th-largest in the first quarter of the year; while Chile saw its ranking increase from 20th in Q1 to 10th in Q4. These countries added 2.3GW and 1.7GW of new capacity in 2025, respectively.
The publication of the utility-scale additions in 2025 echoes similar figures from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), which noted that the world added more than 500GW of new capacity last year; Wiki-Solar’s Philp Wolfe said that he expects solar to be the world’s “primary energy source within 20 years”.
The latest Wiki-Solar figures also confirm a trend identified in December, when the company reported that the world exceeded 1TW of cumulative operational utility-scale capacity for the first time.
