At the end of 2012 there were 100 gigawatt of solar panels installed! This milestone of cumulative solar capacity was reported by EPIA, the European Photovoltaic Industry Association, earlier this year. Growth was especially strong in 2011 and 2012, with both years adding about 30 gigawatt of capacity. But how many solar panels are we really talking about?
100 GigaWatt of solar equals 400 million solar panels (of 250wp), which means:
- One solar panel for every 12.5 people in the world (source)
- One solar panel for each child up to 5 years old (source)
- One solar panel for every Iphone ever sold (source)
- One solar panel for every 1,000 trees in the world (source)
Taken together these solar panels would cover more than a third of Greater London (source) and they sum up to one 4kWp system (16 panels) for every household in the UK (source).
Now that is a lot of solar panels!