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How to power every country with just solar panels

Is it possible to power the entire world with just solar energy? We estimated the area of solar panels each country would need to fulfil its energy needs.

11 May 2018

Is it possible to power the entire world with just solar energy? We estimated the area of solar panels each of 147 countries would need to fulfil its energy needs (see full methodology below). There are two factors at play here: the amount of sun that country gets, and the amount of energy it uses.

It turns out that for most countries, the required area is a (probably) doable amount. 87% of the countries could power themselves using less than 5% of their land. The US falls into this category, requiring just 1.4% of its country to be covered in solar panels. According to the Economic Research Centre, only 3% of the US is built upon – this may well be possible.

Only three places included in the analysis need more solar panels than they have land: Singapore (830%), Hong Kong (213%) and Bahrain (156%). This makes sense as they are very small and dense states.

In total, we’d need over 400,000 square miles of solar panels to power the whole Earth, less than the area of South Africa. While, of course, we can’t replace South Africa with solar panels, spreading this area out across the world does seem like something we could achieve in the future.

Feeling inspired to help the world switch to solar? Find out what options there are to finance your solar panels and what you might expect to pay in our guide.

The full list of countries

Country	Solar panel area (square miles)	% of country
Afghanistan	181	0.1%
Albania	58	0.6%
Algeria	1,162	0.1%
Andorra	1	0.3%
Angola	185	0.0%
Argentina	2,849	0.3%
Armenia	97	0.9%
Australia	2,421	0.1%
Austria	977	3.1%
Azerbaijan	649	2.0%
Bahrain	463	156.3%
Bangladesh	1,085	2.2%
Belarus	1,405	1.8%
Belgium	2,409	20.6%
Benin	54	0.1%
Bhutan	12	0.1%
Bosnia and Herzegovina	108	0.6%
Botswana	31	0.0%
Brunei Darussalam	108	5.3%
Bulgaria	324	0.8%
Burkina Faso	23	0.0%
Burundi	4	0.0%
Cambodia	54	0.1%
Cameroon	77	0.0%
Canada	9,270	0.3%
Cape Verde	8	0.4%
Central African Republic	4	0.0%
Chad	4	0.0%
Chile	788	0.3%
China	41,004	1.1%
Comoros	1	0.2%
Republic of the Congo	85	0.1%
Democratic Republic of the Congo	50	0.0%
Cote DIvoire	116	0.1%
Croatia	282	1.3%
Cyprus	58	1.6%
Czech Republic	911	3.1%
Denmark	618	3.8%
Djibouti	8	0.1%
Egypt	2,471	0.6%
Eritrea	4	0.0%
Estonia	127	0.8%
Ethiopia	77	0.0%
Fiji	23	0.3%
Finland	946	0.8%
France	5,066	2.4%
Gabon	50	0.1%
Gambia	4	0.1%
Georgia	135	0.5%
Germany	33,382	24.8%
Ghana	124	0.1%
Greece	614	1.2%
Guinea	19	0.0%
Guinea-Bissau	4	0.0%
Hong Kong	861	212.5%
Hungary	861	2.5%
Iceland	139	0.4%
India	8,776	0.8%
Indonesia	3,378	0.5%
Iran	6,803	1.1%
Iraq	1,181	0.7%
Ireland	618	2.3%
Israel	587	7.0%
Italy	4,228	3.7%
Japan	11,263	8.0%
Jordan	286	0.8%
Kazakhstan	903	0.1%
Kenya	104	0.0%
North Korea	54	0.1%
South Korea	7,386	19.6%
Kuwait	1,197	17.4%
Kyrgyzstan	89	0.1%
Laos	12	0.0%
Latvia	178	0.7%
Lebanon	205	5.2%
Lesotho	8	0.1%
Liberia	8	0.0%
Libya	425	0.1%
Liechtenstein	1	1.9%
Lithuania	239	1.0%
Luxembourg	178	17.9%
Macedonia	62	0.6%
Madagascar	19	0.0%
Malawi	12	0.0%
Malaysia	2,066	1.6%
Maldives	12	10.1%
Mali	12	0.0%
Malta	50	40.8%
Mauritania	19	0.0%
Mauritius	31	3.9%
Mexico	10,768	1.4%
Moldova	139	1.1%
Mongolia	54	0.0%
Morocco	398	0.2%
Mozambique	97	0.0%
Myanmar	236	0.1%
Namibia	31	0.0%
Netherlands	3,753	28.9%
New Caledonia	23	0.3%
New Zealand	587	0.6%
Niger	15	0.0%
Nigeria	896	0.3%
Norway	1,633	1.2%
Oman	830	0.7%
Pakistan	1,691	0.6%
Palestinian Territory	19	0.9%
Philippines	680	0.6%
Poland	2,529	2.1%
Portugal	575	1.6%
Qatar	1,185	26.5%
Romania	853	1.0%
Russia	23,544	0.4%
Rwanda	8	0.1%
Sao Tome and Principe	1	0.3%
Saudi Arabia	5,564	0.7%
Senegal	58	0.1%
Sierra Leone	8	0.0%
Singapore	2,274	830.2%
Slovakia	471	2.5%
Slovenia	158	2.0%
Somalia	8	0.0%
South Africa	1,278	0.3%
Spain	3,066	1.6%
Sri Lanka	158	0.7%
Sudan	120	0.0%
Swaziland	8	0.1%
Sweden	1,208	0.8%
Switzerland	641	4.2%
Syria	301	0.4%
Taiwan	2,649	18.9%
Tajikistan	62	0.1%
Tanzania	100	0.0%
Thailand	4,178	2.1%
Togo	15	0.1%
Trinidad and Tobago	915	46.2%
Tunisia	313	0.5%
Turkey	3,637	1.2%
Turkmenistan	1,745	1.0%
Uganda	35	0.0%
Ukraine	2,081	0.9%
UAE	3,853	11.9%
UK	11,463	12.3%
US	49,958	1.4%
Uzbekistan	425	0.3%
Vietnam	1,112	0.9%
Yemen	158	0.1%
Zimbabwe	46	0.0%

Methodology

The area of solar panels required was calculated from equation

E = A * r * H * PR

from photovoltaic-software.com.

For energy (E), we summed the countries’ electricity, natural gas and refined petroleum products consumption according to the CIA World Factbook.
For solar panel efficiency (r) and performance ratio (PR) we used the values suggested by photovoltaic-software.com – 15% and 0.75 respectively.
For Annual average solar radiation (H), we averaged the total yearly values given for each country in OpenSolarDB.
Countries for which either the World Factbook or OpenSolarDB didn’t have data were left out of the analysis.

Since we didn’t have data for every country, the total area needed to power the world was estimated by finding the average area needed for a country, and multiplying it by the total number of countries (195).

Note that each country was enlarged to fit the box above the world map. While the squares on each map are to scale with the country itself, they aren’t to scale between countries, since all the countries vary a lot in size.

How to power every country with just solar panels

Is it possible to power the entire world with just solar energy? We estimated the area of solar panels each country would need to fulfil its energy needs.

The full list of countries

Methodology

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