Solar beats hydropower in 28 of 131 countries

Claim types Fact · Estimate

Ember yearly electricity data (generation in TWh, series Solar and Hydro), CC BY 4.0, edition: Ember yearly electricity data, version 90e95a655c (a few rows from versions 20cfe889fc and 0dbd52e7d6), read from Ember via the progrss vault (indicators solar and hydro, loaded from ember-energy.org/data/yearly-electricity-data/, retrieved 9 Nov 2026). Counting rule: ISO3 countries and territories Ember lists with both series and hydropower of at least 0.1 TWh in 2024 (131); solar counts when its generation is above hydro in the same year. The same 131 are compared in 2015: 7 then (Belgium, Cuba, Czechia, Germany, Korea, South Africa, United Kingdom), 28 in 2024. Countries now ahead (28): Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cuba, Czechia, Dominican Republic, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Jamaica, Japan, Korea, Lebanon, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mauritius, Morocco, Mexico, Poland, Senegal, South Africa, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States. Several have tiny hydro bases (Hungary 0.23, Luxembourg 0.11, Cuba 0.12, Jamaica 0.12 TWh); Taiwan is a territory in the Ember list. Hydropower output as Ember reports it (dams and run-of-river); a dry or wet year moves it, so close cases (Dominican Republic 1.55 vs 1.47, Mexico 26.3 vs 24.0 TWh) can flip. Not ahead in 2024: China 839 vs 1,364 TWh (0.62x), India 141.7 vs 156.5 (0.91x), Brazil 70.7 vs 421.8, Viet Nam 32.9 vs 88.7, Pakistan 19.8 vs 38.4, Kenya 0.7 vs 3.1. 2024 is used because it has the fuller set: 131 countries meet the rule in 2024, against 79 in 2025, when Ember has so far published about half of countries. Among the 80 of the 131 with 2025 data, 23 had solar ahead in 2024 and 27 in 2025 (new: Chile 22.2 vs 19.7, India 194.6 vs 178.0, Italy 44.6 vs 41.8, Uzbekistan 6.5 vs 6.3, North Macedonia 2.0 vs 1.3 TWh; Mexico 27.1 vs 29.3 fell back), so the count is still rising. Ember compiles national statistics and fills gaps with its own estimates; recent years may be revised. This differs from plate 174 (solar vs coal, 25 of 81): it compares solar with hydropower, a different set of countries, and the leaders are not the same. Counts and ratios are progrss calculation.