Viet Nam reached 10% solar in two years, Germany 13
Years each big power system took to go from 1% to 10% of its electricity from solar, to 2025.
- 1. China now uses more electricity per person than the EU
- 2. Solar now makes more of Brazil's power than fossil fuels
- 3. Rooftop solar now outsizes coal on Australia's main grid
- 4. Volcanic heat makes nearly 45% of the power Kenya generates
- 5. France swung from power importer to record exporter
- 6. Over a quarter of China's new heavy trucks are electric
- 7. Nepal imports twice as many electric cars as petrol cars
- 8. The US now ships a quarter of the world's LNG
- 9. Kazakhstan mines more uranium than Canada and Namibia combined
- 10. Indonesia now mines two-thirds of the world's nickel
- 11. India had 27 million ACs for 1.3 billion people
- 12. Sun and wind now beat fossil fuels in Chile
- 13. Two in three rickshaws sold in India are electric
- 14. Argentina mined 60% more lithium in just one year
- 15. Ethiopia added over a third of Africa's new renewable power
- 16. Only 16 countries are building new coal power plants
- 17. Egypt's sun and wind now outproduce its Nile dams
- 18. The price of lithium fell 86% in three years
- 19. Pakistan now gets more power from solar than from coal
- 20. Oil now makes less than a third of Saudi power
- 21. The Philippines is building more solar than it already runs
- 22. Nine in ten Indonesians now cook with clean fuels
- 23. Rwanda spread electricity faster than any country since 2014
- 24. India's sun and wind now outproduce Germany's
- 25. Solar now beats coal in 25 of 81 coal-burning countries
- 26. Indonesia climbed from ninth to second among cobalt miners
- 27. Fossil fuels fell from all to two-thirds of UAE power
- 28. DR Congo tripled its copper mining in ten years
- 29. Paraguay now uses most of the power it makes
- 30. Nigeria now imports more solar panels than generators
- 31. Zimbabwe climbed to fourth among the world's lithium miners
- 32. Coal's share of Bangladesh's power jumped from 2% to 22%
- 33. Guyana now emits more CO2 per person than Britain
- 34. Nepal now sells more electricity than it buys
- 35. Emerging economies now take 42% of China's electric car exports
- 36. China's car sales to Ethiopia are now mostly electric
- 37. Saudi Arabia's battery imports grew 46-fold since 2019
- 38. Pakistan became the world's third-biggest buyer of solar panels
- 39. Solar beats hydropower in 28 of 131 countries
- 40. Viet Nam reached 10% solar in two years, Germany 13
Viet Nam's climb from 2.0% solar power in 2019 to 10.8% in 2021, the fastest of the 11 big systems that made it; it has held near 10% since.
Germany's climb from 1.1% in 2009 to 10.6% in 2022. Spain and Japan took 12, Italy 11.
Viet Nam, Poland, Pakistan, Brazil and Turkey all made the climb in seven years or less, starting in 2018 or later.
the numbers & method
| Years from 1% to 10% solar (yrs) | |
|---|---|
| Viet Nam | 2 |
| Poland | 4 |
| Pakistan | 5 |
| Brazil | 6 |
| Turkey | 7 |
| Australia | 8 |
| China | 9 |
| Italy | 11 |
| Spain | 12 |
| Japan | 12 |
| Germany | 13 |
Claim types Fact · Estimate
Ember yearly electricity data (solar share of generation, %), CC BY 4.0, edition: Ember yearly electricity data, version 90e95a655c (identical rows in version 0dbd52e7d6), read from Ember via the progrss vault (loaded from ember-energy.org/data/yearly-electricity-data/, retrieved 3 and 9 Nov 2026). Rule, set before looking at the result: the 26 countries with at least 150 TWh of electricity demand in 2024 whose solar share passed 1%; years counted from the first year at or above 1% to the first year at or above 10% (progrss calculation). 11 of the 26 have reached 10%: Viet Nam 2 (2019 to 2021), Poland 4 (2020 to 2024), Pakistan 5 (2019 to 2024), Brazil 6 (2019 to 2025), Turkey 7 (2018 to 2025), Australia 8 (2013 to 2021), China 9 (2016 to 2025), Italy 11 (2011 to 2022), Spain 12 (2009 to 2021), Japan 12 (2013 to 2025), Germany 13 (2009 to 2022). 15 have not reached 10% yet, so late starters that are slow do not show on the chart: the United States passed 1% in 2016 and was at 8.6% in 2025, India passed 1% in 2017 and was at 9.4%; also Canada, Korea, France, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, United Kingdom, Taiwan, Thailand, South Africa, Egypt, Malaysia, United Arab Emirates and Argentina. Viet Nam's solar share has stayed near 10% since 2021 (10.3% in 2025). 2025 figures come from the countries Ember has published so far and may be revised. Six times = 13 ÷ 2 years. Ember compiles national statistics and fills gaps with its own estimates. Counted in whole years: Viet Nam passed 1% and 10% within 2019 and 2021. Live re-read of the Ember page failed (fetch refused); vault rule GUIDELINES §4.11 applies.
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