← on nowLGR-046 · v0.1.0 · model · count solar: how much, per second and per year
solar · kilowatt-hours
from the sun
2 trillion
a year
63,376
a second
5.5 billion
a day
from coal
10.4 trillion
a year
329,556
a second
28 billion
a day
method Ember 2025: solar generation ~2,000 TWh (2024); coal ~10,400 TWh. panels/second from ~600 GW installed per year at ~400 W each.
- about 47 solar panels are installed somewhere on earth every second. solar was about seven percent of the world’s electricity in 2024, up from one percent in 2015.source: Ember Global Electricity Review 2025; IEA
- a panel repays the energy that made it in one to two years and runs for twenty-five to thirty. it is not free. it wins anyway.source: Fraunhofer ISE PV Report 2024; IPCC AR5 Annex III
- most panels are made in china on a coal grid. that is where their carbon comes from, and it is falling as the grid does.source: IEA Special Report on Solar PV Supply Chains 2022
live. this is the channel itself. embed it anywhere:
<iframe src="https://thetoll.earth/?channel=solar" width="100%" height="520" style="border:1px solid #D9DDDB" title="the toll · solar"></iframe>
or the whole broadcast, every channel, the same for everyone:
<iframe src="https://thetoll.earth/?embed=1" width="100%" height="520" style="border:1px solid #D9DDDB" title="the toll · on now, everywhere"></iframe>
how this number is built
- method
- Ember 2025: solar generation ~2,000 TWh (2024); coal ~10,400 TWh. panels/second from ~600 GW installed per year at ~400 W each.
- range
- solar 1,900–2,200 TWh; coal 10,000–10,700 TWh
- confidence
- count
- weakness
- annual figures; both are moving fast in opposite directions, so this channel dates quickly and should be a feed.
- dispute
- dispute LGR-046 · corrections are credited
- data
- channels.json (sign-in) · full entry · CC BY 4.0