BRICS countries gained the lead in global solar energy as of yearend 2024. In aggregate, ten BRICS countries accounted for about 51% of the world’s solar electricity generation, as reported by Ember global think tank.
“BRICS countries are no longer on the sidelines of the clean energy transition – they are driving it,” notes Muyi Yang, Senior Electricity Analyst at Ember. “The bloc has the momentum and the opportunity to lead with greater ambition while strengthening energy security and reducing reliance on fossil fuel imports.”
China remains the growth driver. In 2024, China accounted for 39% of global solar energy production (in 2014, this figure was no more than 12%). Among other BRICS countries, impressive growth rates have been achieved over the past 10 years by India (6.3% of global solar power generation vs 2.5% in 2014) and Brazil (3.5% in 2024 vs 0.01% ten years earlier). These three countries are among the top 5 largest global solar generators with 834 TWh, 133 TWh and 75 TWh solar module output in 2024, respectively.
Further, the current expanded top 20 global ranking includes South Africa and UAE: these countries accounted for approximately 0.9% of global solar energy production in 2024 (20 TWh and 15.2 TWh, respectively).
The other five BRICS countries account, in aggregate, for 0.5% of the global solar electric energy generation. According to the latest Ember Yearly Electricity Data monitoring (May 2025), Russia has increased its solar electric energy production more than 18 times over the past 10 years – from 0.16 TWh in 2014 to 2.92 TWh in 2024. However, in absolute figures, Russia is still noticeably behind most of its BRICS partners in this respect.
