Daan Walter was watching the sunrise over Amsterdam when he opened the beta version of Ember’s Solar + Battery Atlas, a digital map glowing with data points from 5,000 locations across six continents. It was the summer solstice, a day of maximum light — a fitting moment, he thought, to unveil a tool that proves solar energy, paired with batteries, can now deliver reliable, low-cost electricity to nearly everyone on the planet. This isn’t a distant promise; it’s today’s reality in most of the world.
Ember, a global energy think tank, has long studied the shift to clean power. Last year, they modeled just 12 sites to test whether solar-plus-storage could provide 24/7 electricity. The results were promising. This year, using AI to accelerate data processing and prototype development, they scaled up to 5,000 locations — a 400-fold increase — creating the most granular global snapshot yet of solar’s potential. The goal? To move beyond technical feasibility and answer the urgent questions: Who benefits most? Where can solar outcompete fossil fuels? And which planned coal and gas plants are already obsolete on economics alone?
The findings are striking. Solar energy is not just abundant — it’s overwhelmingly so. Suitable land can generate 125 times the world’s current electricity demand, and more than 90% of people live where local solar potential exceeds local needs by at least a factor of ten. But sunlight alone isn’t enough — reliability is key. That’s where batteries come in. Nine out of ten people live in places where solar-plus-storage can reliably supply over 80% of annual electricity demand, with uptime reaching 99% in the sunniest regions. And it’s not just feasible — it’s affordable. Four in five people can access this clean power for under $100 per megawatt-hour; for half the world’s population, it’s under $80.
The implications are deepest in places where electricity is least reliable. Of the 760 million people without power and the nearly 2 billion on unstable grids, most live in sunny regions where solar-plus-battery systems already beat planned fossil fuel projects on cost. Of the roughly 850 gigawatts of coal and gas plants in the pipeline globally, about 590 gigawatts — 69% — are in regions where solar and batteries can already deliver more reliable power at lower cost.
And the future is getting brighter. By 2030, falling costs could make 80%-uptime solar-plus-storage cheaper than $80/MWh for over three-quarters of humanity. Ember’s team isn’t just building models — they’re using AI to prototype tools faster, test ideas, and get feedback before full-scale development. This ‘fail fast, learn faster’ approach de-risks innovation in climate tech. With user input, the Solar + Battery Atlas could soon become a full-fledged public resource — a compass for investors, a blueprint for policymakers, and a beacon of what’s possible.