total electricity capacity of the planet— not just solar, but nuclear, coal, gas, and renewable energy, all added together — was about 10 terawatts. Now China can pump out a full terawatt worth of solar panels each year. The country’s solar capacity grew at a compound rate of 11.7 percent annually from 2020 to 2024. That’s nearly triple the global average of 4.24 percent over the same four-year period, a gap that points to something more like an industrial revolution than mere competitive advantage.

Definitely some sort of revolution involved in this growth rate.

On a global scale, the glut of Chinese solar panels has dropped the average cost of electricity to 4 cents a kilowatt hour, in what may be the cheapest form of energy we’ve ever seen. And keep an eye on that figure: it could easily keep coming down.