Solar Energy's Dramatic Rise

Solar Power Continues to Dominate the News

As the need for power soars the solar industry is in the midst of putting up mind-boggling numbers when it comes to energy output. This article from Smart Planet shows how far the Solar Power companies have come even in the wake of American solar companies going bankrupt!

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Graphic of the day: solar’s dramatic rise

By Kirsten Korosec | July 9, 2012, 10:53 AM PDT

The increase in solar photovoltaic capacity has been well documented in reports here and elsewhere over the years. But nothing quite captures solar PV’s dramatic rise in capacity like a good graphic. Or three graphics, for that matter.

Solar power generating capacity grew by 73.3 percent in 2011, according to the 2012 BP Statistical Review of World Energy. That’s the fastest growth since BP started tracking that data in 1996. Total capacity grew by 29.3 gigawatts to reach 63.4 GW. Capacity has grown almost ten-fold over the past five years, according to BP’s annual report.

BP released its annual statistical review last month and at the time, the graphic, which is pictured below, stood out to me.  I proceeded to promptly forget the visually striking data until today, when I spotted a series of renewable energy graphics based on BP’s stats created by Robert Rapier of R-Squared blog at  ConsumerEnergyReport.com. Rapier’s renewable energy graphics are part of a larger graphical series on energy.

Here’s BP’s graphic, which accompanied the report.

You can check out the rest of the article which shows the dramatic rise in the use of Solar Power worldwide and how the drop in prices of solar cells is changing the way we think about using energy! Check out more graphics at :

http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/intelligent-energy/graphic-of-the-day-solars-dramatic-rise/17454?tag=nl.e660