As one of the most densely populated countries in the world japan does not have the luxury of covering huge swathes of land with solar panels.
Country with most advanced solar panel technology.
Add in the rooftop space potential in the u s.
When most people hear the words solar power they instantly think of good ole solar panels on rooftops or in a solar farm in the desert.
Despite its lack of abundant open space japan is.
By the end of 2016 cumulative photovoltaic capacity increased by more than 75 gigawatt gw and reached at least 303 gw sufficient to supply approximately 1 8 percent of the world s total electricity consumption.
Traditional utility scale and rooftop solar panels have dominated the solar market until this point.
This large jump in efficiency resulted in the power output of a standard size.
In fact in 2009 germany installed 3 806 megawatts of solar energy capacity nearly eight times the amount installed by the u s.
And with good reason.
Solar panel efficiency is a measure of the amount of solar energy irradiation which falls on a panel surface and is converted into electricity due to the many recent advances in solar cell technology over the last 5 years average panel conversion efficiency has increased from 15 to 20.
By early 2020 the leading country for solar power was china with 208 gw accounting for one third of global installed solar capacity.
And we re all the way there nrel estimates that around 39 percent of the country s energy use could be supplied by rooftop solar panel systems equaling 1 118.
2020 new solar technology where are we headed.