The success of solar energy thought leaders this year will largely depend on whether they can influence the industry’s most significant trends.
Weaving yourself into common debate does more than make you relevant, it positions you as a trusted authority, enabling you to shape opinions, guide decision-making, and drive the adoption of transformative practices across the industry.
With this in mind, here are ten important solar energy trends you should watch this year.
In 2024, solar power was deployed 100 times faster than nuclear energy around the globe, making it the fastest-growing renewable energy.
This growth wouldn’t have been possible without solar energy thought leaders who have helped shape perceptions, influence policy, and inspire innovation.
As a result, more companies and the general public are investing in solar panels daily thanks to insights they have heard at a conference or read in a trade publication.
Over recent years, China has cemented its leadership as the world’s leading solar panel supplier. In fact, it is responsible for around 80% of the world’s production.
Most of this success comes down to Chinese government subsidiaries keeping operational costs low, leading to cheaper products dominating the market, particularly in the US.
In response to this dominance, the US government, keen to rebuild its own manufacturing industry, has placed tariffs on Chinese solar panel companies to give US firms an advantage.
The big question is whether this conflict will only lead to higher solar energy prices and slower adoption of renewable power in the long term, impacting net-zero ambitions.
Some experts predict Chinese companies will now flood the EU market and hamper the growth of homegrown companies in Europe too.
With the situation bound to escalate further over the coming months, solar energy thought leadership will be vital to guide industry best practices with so much uncertainty in the air.
While some nations refuse to cooperate, prioritising economic gains over environmental progress, a handful of countries are actively collaborating to hit their net-zero targets.
For instance, the UAE, which has made considerable progress in becoming a more sustainable nation in recent years, has partnered with Albania and Italy, where energy can be transported to Italy via underwater cabling.
This trend of sharing renewable energy could be completely transformative for less developed regions, where the greatest environmental risks must be mitigated.
Solar energy thought leaders should encourage more of these partnerships to help establish renewable energy in the countries that need it most.
Global gas prices are expected to rise even further in 2025 as a direct consequence of a supply shortage.
But what does this mean for solar energy? Essentially, it may be a blessing in disguise.
At least for nations such as Egypt which depend on gas for their electricity, with recent headlines reporting that the nation is now pivoting toward solar farms.
Years ago, this wouldn’t have been possible. But with solar power now the cheapest form of energy globally, thought leaders must help to accelerate the clean energy transition.
The solar energy market is constantly shifting, thanks to global ambitions to transition to clean energy and the corresponding billions in VC investment the industry has received.
Because of this, new materials, products, and solar energy processes are constantly being discovered.
That said, when new technologies are discovered, it’s up to knowledgeable thought leaders to explain how they work, their relevance, and their potential impact to increase uptake.
Otherwise, many of these transformative technologies may go unnoticed.
Perovskite semiconductors help convert sunlight into electricity with a low-cost and relatively easy manufacturing process.
Bifacial solar panels innovatively capture sunlight from the front and back of modules by utilising reflected sunlight rays.
Ultralight fabric solar cells, weighing one-hundredth of traditional solar panels, can be unconventionally integrated into our daily lives, such as clothing and backpacks.
Transparent solar panels will soon allow household windows and building facades to generate electricity while ensuring light transmission.
These examples are only skimming the surface.
We’re bound to see many more revelations throughout 2025 that must be spotlighted.
Currently, the main use cases for solar energy include heating, ventilation, and lighting systems within residential and public buildings. However, more experimental projects are increasingly becoming viable on a much greater scale.
The São Paulo Metro recently agreed on a long-term agreement with CGN Brasil and Pontoon Energia to operate many of its trains using solar energy.
Chinese scientists are working on a 1km solar panel that can be launched into space to collect as much energy in a year as the total amount of oil on Earth.
With the leaders behind these projects receiving significant media coverage, committing to solar energy thought leadership should be a no-brainer if your business is behind a project as remotely as innovative.
As celebrities continue to endorse solar energy, leaders across the industry stand to benefit for two significant reasons.
Firstly, these celebrities often partner with solar energy firms for various projects, such as music concerts, creating lucrative opportunities for executives who can differentiate themselves with thought leadership.
Secondly, you can learn various lessons from these celebrities.
Celebrities promoting sustainability align their words with action. Otherwise, they risk a public backlash.
They leverage storytelling to make abstract sustainability issues more relatable for audiences.
They often take risks by using bold attention-grabbing tactics to raise awareness of the initiatives they support.
It’s almost ironic that solar energy production is itself unsustainable. Worse still, most people don’t even know it.
Polysilicon, the main material in solar cells, mainly derives from quartz sand, which takes substantial mining and water to source before being drastically heated during production, creating a range of ecological and conservation problems.
Moreover, once solar panels are eventually developed, many aren’t recycled, particularly in nations like the US where less than 10% of solar panels are recycled.
Thought leaders must bring more awareness to this often-overlooked issue, influence stricter legislation, and improve production practices.
If you lead a solar energy firm yourself, why not highlight the decisions that you have taken to better your business and industry to set yourself apart?
To build solar farms, you, of course, need land.
Oceans are too risky because of high winds and waves. Cities already lack green spaces as it is. So, the only obvious place is the countryside, which is mostly owned by farmers.
Except, most farmers don’t want to give away their land. More land to them means more capacity for cattle, which means higher profits.
Hence, with global governments pushing to incentivise solar farms, relations between farmers, governments, and solar companies have soured.
To settle this standoff, solar energy thought leaders must campaign for a mutually beneficial outcome for all parties.
For instance, this might mean exploring fairer compensation for farmers’ land or additional benefits such as subsidised renewable energy to further cut farmers' costs.
A host of national and trade publications are currently reporting on this story, so there are bound to be significant opportunities for coverage over the coming months.
As world leaders obsess over building progressive solar farms, one thing that can’t be overlooked is where all this energy will be stored.
Right now, only 3% of power is being stored, which means as the amount of renewable energy the planet produces increases, so will waste.
To address this problem, solar energy thought leaders must shed light on ways to increase storage capacity, such as alternatives to lithium batteries which both power storage facilities and are facing shortages.
Members of parliament in the UK have already highlighted this issue. So, there’s a huge opportunity for thought leaders to influence policy if they campaign to solve it.