Which countries use solar power?

Solar power is used in many countries, and the number is rapidly increasing. There are leaders and slackers, but most countries are coming around to clean, effective and increasingly inexpensive allure of solar power. World solar leaders include Germany, Spain, United States, China, Australia and Japan. Those are just some of the big shots. Solar power is growing on every continent. India, Brazil, Paraguay, Italy, Madagascar, Canada, Portugal, Korea and Israel are just a few more. The list is simply too long to count.

In Africa, India and the developing world in general, solar power is a precious resource for improving living conditions. Much of the people in India and Africa live without electricity. Excluding South Africa and Egypt, no more than 20 percent of Africans have electricity. Solar power is rapidly expanding there; Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Swaziland and Zambia have all developed solar power markets in recent years. Organizations like Solar Electric Light Fund and Solar-Aid are helping bring solar power solutions to these countries and vastly expanding the spread of solar power.

Also, when you look at solar power in a broader sense, every country uses it and always has. Every time a farmer leaves a stalk out to dry, he or she is using solar power. Every time someone hangs a shirt out to dry, opens the blinds to let light and heat in, or puts rice in a black kettle inside a reflective box, that person is using solar power. For millennia, people from all walks of life and on every foot of the earth have used solar power in some way. Nothing has changed. We're just improving the technology with which we may harness that power.