Solar energy status in the world: A comprehensive review

The utilization of renewable energy as a future energy resource is drawing significant attention worldwide. The contribution of solar energy (including concentrating solar power (CSP) and solar photovoltaic (PV) power) to global electricity production, as one form of renewable energy sources, is generally still low, at 3.6%. However, it has firmly established itself among other renewable energy technologies, comprising nearly 31% of the total installed renewable energy capacity in 2022, making it the second most installed renewable energy resource behind hydropower energy. The present review study, through a detailed and systematic literature survey, summarizes the world solar energy status along with the published solar energy potential assessment articles for 235 countries and territories as the first step toward developing solar energy in these regions. A comparison of the solar power status among countries and territories has been provided, considering their concentrated solar power and PV installed capacities for each continent. Although there has been a significant increase of approximately 22% in global solar energy installed capacity between 2021 and 2022, the literature survey reveals that clear gaps still exist in the field of solar energy. In the next three decades, the solar PV field can advance to become the second prominent generation source by constructing more solar farms, allowing countries to generate approximately 25% of the world's total electricity needs by 2050.