Silver
Olympic Gold Medals Have Almost Zero Gold in Them
The 2016 Rio Summer Olympic Games are already 51% over budget, with the total cost expected to be in the $4.6 billion range. With that in mind, the organizers have tried their best to cut costs.
One area of compromise?
The Olympic gold medals, which weigh 500g (1.1 lbs) and are 85mm (3.3 in) in diameter, are gold in name only.
Olympic Gold Medals Have Almost Zero Gold in Them
Today’s infographic comes from JM Bullion and it shows the real amount of metal in gold, silver, and bronze medals, along with the hypothetical cost of awarding solid gold to winning athletes.
All That Glitters is…Silver
That’s right, gold medals are actually 98.8% silver, with just a thin 1.2% coat of gold paint. The thin layer of gold meets the minimum requirement set by IOC says for the amount of gold actually in the gold medal – just six grams.
The material cost of a gold medal right now based on this composition is $548. Almost half of that comes from the six grams of gold, while the rest comes from the 494 grams of sterling silver.
The silver and bronze medals have material costs of $292 and $2.16 respectively.
Why Doesn’t the Olympics Use Solid Gold Medals?
Solid gold medals haven’t been awarded to Olympic athletes since the 1912 Stockholm Games. Back then, medals were a mere 33mm in diameter and made of silver gilded with gold. It’s easy to see why organizers have gone this route when you take into account the difference in material costs.
Each gold medal at the Rio Games currently costs $548 for materials – if they were solid gold that cost would balloon to $21,674 per medal. That means that if all 812 gold medals were solid gold, the tab would be a grand total of $17.6 million. That’s not including minting or additional security costs, either.
With the 2016 Rio Summer Olympic Games already 51% over budget, we can forgive the organizers for sticking to the minimum required amount of gold for each medal.
Mining
Mapped: Solar Power by Country in 2021
In 2020, solar power saw its largest-ever annual capacity expansion at 127 gigawatts. Here’s a snapshot of solar power capacity by country.

Mapped: Solar Power by Country in 2021
This was originally posted on Elements. Sign up to the free mailing list to get beautiful visualizations on natural resource megatrends in your email every week.
The world is adopting renewable energy at an unprecedented pace, and solar power is the energy source leading the way.
Despite a 4.5% fall in global energy demand in 2020, renewable energy technologies showed promising progress. While the growth in renewables was strong across the board, solar power led from the front with 127 gigawatts installed in 2020, its largest-ever annual capacity expansion.
The above infographic uses data from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) to map solar power capacity by country in 2021. This includes both solar photovoltaic (PV) and concentrated solar power capacity.
The Solar Power Leaderboard
From the Americas to Oceania, countries in virtually every continent (except Antarctica) added more solar to their mix last year. Hereโs a snapshot of solar power capacity by country at the beginning of 2021:
Country | Installed capacity, megawatts | Watts* per capita | % of world total |
---|---|---|---|
China ๐จ๐ณ | 254,355 | 147 | 35.6% |
U.S. ๐บ๐ธ | 75,572 | 231 | 10.6% |
Japan ๐ฏ๐ต | 67,000 | 498 | 9.4% |
Germany ๐ฉ๐ช | 53,783 | 593 | 7.5% |
India ๐ฎ๐ณ | 39,211 | 32 | 5.5% |
Italy ๐ฎ๐น | 21,600 | 345 | 3.0% |
Australia ๐ฆ๐บ | 17,627 | 637 | 2.5% |
Vietnam ๐ป๐ณ | 16,504 | 60 | 2.3% |
South Korea ๐ฐ๐ท | 14,575 | 217 | 2.0% |
Spain ๐ช๐ธ | 14,089 | 186 | 2.0% |
United Kingdom ๐ฌ๐ง | 13,563 | 200 | 1.9% |
France ๐ซ๐ท | 11,733 | 148 | 1.6% |
Netherlands ๐ณ๐ฑ | 10,213 | 396 | 1.4% |
Brazil ๐ง๐ท | 7,881 | 22 | 1.1% |
Turkey ๐น๐ท | 6,668 | 73 | 0.9% |
South Africa ๐ฟ๐ฆ | 5,990 | 44 | 0.8% |
Taiwan ๐น๐ผ | 5,817 | 172 | 0.8% |
Belgium ๐ง๐ช | 5,646 | 394 | 0.8% |
Mexico ๐ฒ๐ฝ | 5,644 | 35 | 0.8% |
Ukraine ๐บ๐ฆ | 5,360 | 114 | 0.8% |
Poland ๐ต๐ฑ | 3,936 | 34 | 0.6% |
Canada ๐จ๐ฆ | 3,325 | 88 | 0.5% |
Greece ๐ฌ๐ท | 3,247 | 258 | 0.5% |
Chile ๐จ๐ฑ | 3,205 | 142 | 0.4% |
Switzerland ๐จ๐ญ | 3,118 | 295 | 0.4% |
Thailand ๐น๐ญ | 2,988 | 43 | 0.4% |
United Arab Emirates ๐ฆ๐ช | 2,539 | 185 | 0.4% |
Austria ๐ฆ๐น | 2,220 | 178 | 0.3% |
Czech Republic ๐จ๐ฟ | 2,073 | 194 | 0.3% |
Hungary ๐ญ๐บ | 1,953 | 131 | 0.3% |
Egypt ๐ช๐ฌ | 1,694 | 17 | 0.2% |
Malaysia ๐ฒ๐พ | 1,493 | 28 | 0.2% |
Israel ๐ฎ๐ฑ | 1,439 | 134 | 0.2% |
Russia ๐ท๐บ | 1,428 | 7 | 0.2% |
Sweden ๐ธ๐ช | 1,417 | 63 | 0.2% |
Romania ๐ท๐ด | 1,387 | 71 | 0.2% |
Jordan ๐ฏ๐ด | 1,359 | 100 | 0.2% |
Denmark ๐ฉ๐ฐ | 1,300 | 186 | 0.2% |
Bulgaria ๐ง๐ฌ | 1,073 | 152 | 0.2% |
Philippines ๐ต๐ญ | 1,048 | 9 | 0.1% |
Portugal ๐ต๐น | 1,025 | 81 | 0.1% |
Argentina ๐ฆ๐ท | 764 | 17 | 0.1% |
Pakistan ๐ต๐ฐ | 737 | 6 | 0.1% |
Morocco ๐ฒ๐ฆ | 734 | 6 | 0.1% |
Slovakia ๐ธ๐ฐ | 593 | 87 | 0.1% |
Honduras ๐ญ๐ณ | 514 | 53 | 0.1% |
Algeria ๐ฉ๐ฟ | 448 | 10 | 0.1% |
El Salvador ๐ธ๐ป | 429 | 66 | 0.1% |
Iran ๐ฎ๐ท | 414 | 5 | 0.1% |
Saudi Arabia ๐ธ๐ฆ | 409 | 12 | 0.1% |
Finland ๐ซ๐ฎ | 391 | 39 | 0.1% |
Dominican Republic ๐ฉ๐ด | 370 | 34 | 0.1% |
Peru ๐ต๐ช | 331 | 10 | 0.05% |
Singapore ๐ธ๐ฌ | 329 | 45 | 0.05% |
Bangladesh ๐ง๐ฉ | 301 | 2 | 0.04% |
Slovenia ๐ธ๐ฎ | 267 | 128 | 0.04% |
Uruguay ๐บ๐พ | 256 | 74 | 0.04% |
Yemen ๐พ๐ช | 253 | 8 | 0.04% |
Iraq ๐ฎ๐ถ | 216 | 5 | 0.03% |
Cambodia ๐ฐ๐ญ | 208 | 12 | 0.03% |
Cyprus ๐จ๐พ | 200 | 147 | 0.03% |
Panama ๐ต๐ฆ | 198 | 46 | 0.03% |
Luxembourg ๐ฑ๐บ | 195 | 244 | 0.03% |
Malta ๐ฒ๐น | 184 | 312 | 0.03% |
Indonesia ๐ฎ๐ฉ | 172 | 1 | 0.02% |
Cuba ๐จ๐บ | 163 | 14 | 0.02% |
Belarus ๐ง๐พ | 159 | 17 | 0.02% |
Senegal ๐ธ๐ณ | 155 | 8 | 0.02% |
Norway ๐ณ๐ด | 152 | 17 | 0.02% |
Lithuania ๐ฑ๐น | 148 | 37 | 0.02% |
Namibia ๐ณ๐ฆ | 145 | 55 | 0.02% |
New Zealand ๐ณ๐ฟ | 142 | 29 | 0.02% |
Estonia ๐ช๐ช | 130 | 98 | 0.02% |
Bolivia ๐ง๐ด | 120 | 10 | 0.02% |
Oman ๐ด๐ฒ | 109 | 21 | 0.02% |
Colombia ๐จ๐ด | 107 | 2 | 0.01% |
Kenya ๐ฐ๐ช | 106 | 2 | 0.01% |
Guatemala ๐ฌ๐น | 101 | 6 | 0.01% |
Croatia ๐ญ๐ท | 85 | 17 | 0.01% |
World total ๐ | 713,970 | 83 | 100.0% |
*1 megawatt = 1,000,000 watts.
China is the undisputed leader in solar installations, with over 35% of global capacity. What’s more, the country is showing no signs of slowing down. It has the worldโs largest wind and solar project in the pipeline, which could add another 400,000MW to its clean energy capacity.
Following China from afar is the U.S., which recently surpassed 100,000MW of solar power capacity after installing another 50,000MW in the first three months of 2021. Annual solar growth in the U.S. has averaged an impressive 42% over the last decade. Policies like the solar investment tax credit, which offers a 26% tax credit on residential and commercial solar systems, have helped propel the industry forward.
Although Australia hosts a fraction of Chinaโs solar capacity, it tops the per capita rankings due to its relatively low population of 26 million people. The Australian continent receives the highest amount of solar radiation of any continent, and over 30% of Australian households now have rooftop solar PV systems.
China: The Solar Champion
In 2020, President Xi Jinping stated that China aims to be carbon neutral by 2060, and the country is taking steps to get there.
China is a leader in the solar industry, and it seems to have cracked the code for the entire solar supply chain. In 2019, Chinese firms produced 66% of the worldโs polysilicon, the initial building block of silicon-based photovoltaic (PV) panels. Furthermore, more than three-quarters of solar cells came from China, along with 72% of the worldโs PV panels.
With that said, itโs no surprise that 5 of the worldโs 10 largest solar parks are in China, and it will likely continue to build more as it transitions to carbon neutrality.
Whatโs Driving the Rush for Solar Power?
The energy transition is a major factor in the rise of renewables, but solarโs growth is partly due to how cheap it has become over time. Solar energy costs have fallen exponentially over the last decade, and itโs now the cheapest source of new energy generation.
Since 2010, the cost of solar power has seen a 85% decrease, down from $0.28 to $0.04 per kWh. According to MIT researchers, economies of scale have been the single-largest factor in continuing the cost decline for the last decade. In other words, as the world installed and made more solar panels, production became cheaper and more efficient.
This year, solar costs are rising due to supply chain issues, but the rise is likely to be temporary as bottlenecks resolve.
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