Solar Power Deployed 100 Times Faster Than Nuclear

Recent data from the International Energy Agency, the World Nuclear Association and Ember showed that solar power was deployed 100 times faster than nuclear power around the world in 2024 – and “five times faster than everything else combined” (hydro, coal, gas, nuclear and others), according to a new report by PV Mag.

Net new nuclear capacity average just 2 gigawatts (GW) per year over the past decade, including 5.5 GW in 2024, and “old power plants were retiring almost as fast as new power plants open,” while about 700 GW of solar and wind was deployed in 2024, the report, by Professors Ricardo Ruther and Andrew Blakers, said.

Solar generation had grown tenfold each decade, while nuclear generation had been static for more than two decades and the market was clearly saying “solar and wind are cheaper than nuclear electricity,” they said.

The stagnation of nuclear power deployment since 2000 meant that “supply chains, finance and skilled people are not available to fuel a rapid surge in nuclear capacity” and that nuclear power station construction “is a cottage industry compared with solar.”

The academics’ report may have been targeted for an Australian audience, given that it must hold a national election by May this year and the opposition Liberal and National Party Coalition has a high-profile campaign to expand nuclear power to most Australian states.

The push for nuclear power by Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has been strongly criticized by the Albanese government and fans of renewable power.

That is partly because funding costs have been allegedly been vastly understated, while critics say the policy will cut off power generated by panels on millions of Australians’ homes, and will rely on power from coal plants that are already deteriorating and may not last for the many years it will take to build nuclear power stations in seven states.

Read the full report: PV Mag.