Solar power in China is a growing industry with over 400 photovoltaic companies. China was the world’s leading installer of solar photovoltaics in 2013, adding a record of 11.3 gigawatts of capacity.
China has been the world’s largest manufacturer of solar panels since 2008. Industry estimates that by the end of 2017, China will have enough manufacturing capacity to produce 51 gigawatts of photovoltaics per year, an amount over twice as large as 2010’s global production rate.
Japan has been expanding its solar power since the late 1990s, where as China is a big manufacturer, Japan has been a large consumer. Japan was the world’s 2nd largest market for solar power in 2013.
Check the following image of Komekurayama solar power plant:
Space-based solar power:
Not only can we harvest the power on the Earth, we can also harvest solar power in the space. This greatly increases the area of power we can collect. The project has been in research since the early 1970s.
By putting the solar power plant in the space the plant can double its production easily, because there’s no night time in the space, the orbiting plant can always face the sun. The problems with this project are mainly the cost and the ways of transmitting the power generated back to the Earth. Radiation and micrometeoroid could also damage the orbiting plant.
The solar cell phone charger use solar panels to charge cell phone batteries. These can be a mobile power plant since they are small and easy to transport. They provide a great alternative when electric outlets are not around but sun is right above you. These solar chargers have been integrated into cell phone cases that can charge the phone directly whenever there’s light, hence the phone will never need to be charged from wall outlets.
http://www.earth-policy.org/datacenter/xls/indicator12_2014_2.xlsx
http://www.iea-pvps.org/index.php?id=1&eID=dam_frontend_push&docID=1236
http://www.12voltsolarpanels.net/charge-your-cell-phone
http://www.go-green-solar-energy.com/portable-solar-power.html
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/reprint/162/3856/857.pdf