Solar PV’s and EVs’ Perfectly Synchronous Rise

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I’ve got one more highlight to share from the Snapshot of Global PV Markets report recently published by the International Energy Agency’s Photovoltaic Power Systems Program (IEA PVPS). This one was buried on the last page. The graph shows that solar PV power and electric vehicles (EVs) have been growing together — exploding together even. What is amazing is just how synchronous their growth trends have been.

You can barely separate them. It’s like they’re having a tango together. Solar got a slightly faster start in the 2010s, then EVs climbed slightly ahead from 2021–2023, and then solar PV’s adoption line popped above the EV adoption line.

What is extra great about this, though, is that EVs and PV complement each other perfectly. Solar PV’s growth is great, of course, but the one issue it has is that at a large scale, it overproduces in the daytime and, of course, underproduces when the sun goes down. With more and more EVs on the grid and parked most of the day, they can often charge during the day and soak up that extra, cheap, clean electricity. With smart charging — and particularly advanced vehicle-to-grid programs — electricity demand can really be shifted around to match up better with supply.

And, naturally, on the flip side, if we’re going to grow electricity demand by driving electric cars, we need that electricity to be coming from clean sources. Solar power wins the day, as it is dominating new power installations now.

Overall, solar PV’s and EVs’ perfectly synchronous rise seems truly serendipitous. What a lucky situation!