Why solar power's 3TW landmark is a global gamechanger
Guest/partner contributor
Posted on: 22 July 2026
Around the world, solar has become the strongest ally in strengthening energy security, writes Raffaele Rossi of SolarPower Europe.
Solar has made a habit of outpacing expectations. SolarPower Europe's Global Solar Market Outlook 2026-2030 confirms that 2025 marked yet another record year for installations. But the most important story is what those records have left behind: a global solar fleet now larger than 3TW.
By the end of 2025, the world had reached 2.9TW of operating solar capacity, before passing the 3TW mark in early 2026. From less than 1TW at the end of 2021, the global solar fleet has tripled in around four years.
In 2025 alone, 664GW of new solar PV capacity was added worldwide, keeping solar at the centre of global renewable energy growth.
Looking at the European Union alone, the significance of solar’s growth is clear in the gas bill. SolarPower Europe’s latest research shows that EU solar PV generation has saved €20 billion ($23 billion) in avoided gas imports since the beginning of the 2026 Middle East war.
What do these numbers tell us about solar’s growing role in energy security?
Energy security
Around the world, solar has become the strongest ally in strengthening energy security. Every gigawatt of solar installed reduces the amount of fossil fuels needed to generate electricity.
According to the Global Solar Market Outlook 2026-2030, solar generated 2,778TWh of electricity in 2025, supplying close to 9% of global electricity demand and overtaking wind generation globally for the first time.
That output was equivalent to around 540 billion cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas used for power generation, about five times the amount of LNG that transits annually through the Strait of Hormuz.
Solar strengthens energy security in many practical ways. First, solar is available to all countries and cannot be blocked at borders, allowing domestic generation and reducing external dependencies.
Second, solar makes electricity more affordable. Unlike fossil fuel-based generation, solar requires no fuel once installed, insulating electricity costs from swings in gas prices while remaining the cheapest source of electricity.
Third, by pairing solar with storage, smart grids and flexible demand, electricity systems can benefit from solar generation across more hours of the day. Independence grows as every unit of solar electricity generated at home reduces the need to import fossil fuels for power generation. These benefits sit alongside solar’s wider contribution to decarbonisation, competitiveness and resilience.
Europe’s recent experience shows the same logic over a longer period. Since 2021, the EU has installed 260GW of renewable capacity, more than 80% of it solar. Over the same period, Russian gas fell from 45% of EU gas imports in 2021 to 12% in 2025 and Russian coal was eliminated from the EU energy mix.
Solar was part of a broader response, but it was also the fastest-deploying source of new domestic electricity production.
Resilience infrastructure
Energy security also means keeping electricity available when centralised infrastructure is under pressure. Ukraine shows this in the most direct sense.
As Russia’s war continues to target and damage energy infrastructure, decentralised solar and batteries are being treated as part of civil resilience. In 2025, the country installed around 1.5GW of new solar capacity, almost double the 800MW added in 2024. By January 2026, total installed solar capacity in government-controlled Ukrainian territory exceeded 8.5GW.
Also of interest:
Space-based solar demonstration gets go ahead
Oncopole: From tragedy to urban solar renewal
This is solar contributing to reliability: not only adding clean electricity, but helping hospitals, municipal services, water systems and emergency communications keep power when the wider system is under stress.
Much of this growth has been driven by businesses, municipalities and households investing in self-generation and storage in response to blackouts and power deficits.
The report also notes that Ukraine imported around 3GW of PV modules in 2025, suggesting that actual deployment may be higher than official statistics capture. Solar-plus-storage is becoming part of a more distributed electricity system that can support critical services closer to where power is needed.
Flexibility matters
If solar keeps growing, the next question is how to make the most of its generation. The Global Solar Market Outlook is clear that solar deployment and system integration measures have to move together.
As solar becomes a larger part of the electricity mix with high daytime generation, grids, storage and flexible demand determine how much of that generation can be used when it is most valuable. More flexibility means more solar can contribute to lower fuel demand, lower emissions, stronger competitiveness and a more resilient power system.
This year’s focus market in the Global Solar Market Outlook is Australia, one of the most mature solar PV markets, to highlight what this next stage looks like in practice.
By the end of 2025, Australia’s solar capacity had surpassed 45GW, including around 28GW of rooftop solar. It also remained the world leader in solar capacity per person, at around 1.7kW per capita.
More from Australia
Wärtsilä delivers 150MW flexibility boost in South Australia
Australian wind project scales back for hybrid plan
Distributed storage reached 11.2GWh by May 2026, with more than 400,000 batteries installed. In the final quarter of 2025, renewables and storage supplied more than half (51%) of demand in Australia’s National Electricity Market for the first time.
The before-and-after is important: as solar grows, storage and flexibility help ensure that generation is used across more hours of the day, reducing pressure on the grid, improving the value of the solar already installed, and pushing gas generation – used to cover evening demand peaks – out of the system.
Australia is the clearest example of the next stage: matching a large solar fleet with batteries, smarter grids and flexible demand so that more domestic clean electricity can support consumers when the system needs it most.
Next terawatts
The outlook to 2030 keeps the focus on scale. Under the medium scenario, global solar capacity is forecast to reach 6.6TW by the end of the decade. Solar alone is expected to account for around 60% of the global renewable capacity target linked to the COP28 pledge to triple renewables by 2030.
The impact of today’s 3TW solar world is concrete. Solar is already reducing exposure to imported fuels, helping protect consumers and businesses from price shocks, and giving governments more options when energy systems come under stress.
It is doing so while cutting emissions and strengthening the competitiveness of economies that can rely on more domestic clean electricity.
The next terawatts will build on that foundation. Matched with storage, grids and flexibility, they can turn today’s solar scale into an even stronger source of affordability, resilience and energy security.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Raffaele Rossi is Head of Market Intelligence at SolarPower Europe, a trade association striving to facilitate the transition to a zero-carbon EU energy system through effective policymaking and enabling regulatory frameworks.
