Major cities with the highest modelled solar exposure
NASA POWER annual mean daily surface shortwave energy in kWh/m²/day. This is a consistent solar-exposure metric and is not relabelled as sunny days.
Los Angeles, United States is first in the current published ranking at 5.6455 kWh/m²/day; compare its source date and geographic grain before using the result.
- Items compared
- 30
- Countries represented
- 11
- Last checked
- 2026-07-16
Source-backed answers
Compare each answer with its unit and checked date; the complete source ledger is below.
| Rank | City or place | Published value | Source and scope | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Los Angeles, United States | 5.6455 kWh/m²/daykwh/m²/day | Source Scope: city_coordinate_grid · Period: 2001-2020 | 2026-07-16 |
| 2 | Lisbon, Portugal | 4.7974 kWh/m²/daykwh/m²/day | Source Scope: city_coordinate_grid · Period: 2001-2020 | 2026-07-16 |
| 3 | Sintra, Portugal | 4.7974 kWh/m²/daykwh/m²/day | Source Scope: city_coordinate_grid · Period: 2001-2020 | 2026-07-16 |
| 4 | Madrid, Spain | 4.7033 kWh/m²/daykwh/m²/day | Source Scope: city_coordinate_grid · Period: 2001-2020 | 2026-07-16 |
| 5 | Valencia, Spain | 4.6558 kWh/m²/daykwh/m²/day | Source Scope: city_coordinate_grid · Period: 2001-2020 | 2026-07-16 |
| 6 | Nîmes, France | 4.4086 kWh/m²/daykwh/m²/day | Source Scope: city_coordinate_grid · Period: 2001-2020 | 2026-07-16 |
| 7 | Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal | 4.3932 kWh/m²/daykwh/m²/day | Source Scope: city_coordinate_grid · Period: 2001-2020 | 2026-07-16 |
| 8 | Barcelona, Spain | 4.3752 kWh/m²/daykwh/m²/day | Source Scope: city_coordinate_grid · Period: 2001-2020 | 2026-07-16 |
| 9 | Genova, Italy | 3.9382 kWh/m²/daykwh/m²/day | Source Scope: city_coordinate_grid · Period: 2001-2020 | 2026-07-16 |
| 10 | New York, United States | 3.9206 kWh/m²/daykwh/m²/day | Source Scope: city_coordinate_grid · Period: 2001-2020 | 2026-07-16 |
| 11 | Varna, Bulgaria | 3.9173 kWh/m²/daykwh/m²/day | Source Scope: city_coordinate_grid · Period: 2001-2020 | 2026-07-16 |
| 12 | Plovdiv, Bulgaria | 3.8885 kWh/m²/daykwh/m²/day | Source Scope: city_coordinate_grid · Period: 2001-2020 | 2026-07-16 |
| 13 | 横浜市, Japan | 3.8873 kWh/m²/daykwh/m²/day | Source Scope: city_coordinate_grid · Period: 2001-2020 | 2026-07-16 |
| 14 | 大阪市, Japan | 3.8602 kWh/m²/daykwh/m²/day | Source Scope: city_coordinate_grid · Period: 2001-2020 | 2026-07-16 |
| 15 | Chicago, United States | 3.8441 kWh/m²/daykwh/m²/day | Source Scope: city_coordinate_grid · Period: 2001-2020 | 2026-07-16 |
| 16 | Sofia, Bulgaria | 3.8436 kWh/m²/daykwh/m²/day | Source Scope: city_coordinate_grid · Period: 2001-2020 | 2026-07-16 |
| 17 | Bucharest, Romania | 3.8287 kWh/m²/daykwh/m²/day | Source Scope: city_coordinate_grid · Period: 2001-2020 | 2026-07-16 |
| 18 | Milano, Italy | 3.7834 kWh/m²/daykwh/m²/day | Source Scope: city_coordinate_grid · Period: 2001-2020 | 2026-07-16 |
| 19 | Saint-Étienne, France | 3.7445 kWh/m²/daykwh/m²/day | Source Scope: city_coordinate_grid · Period: 2001-2020 | 2026-07-16 |
| 20 | 名古屋市, Japan | 3.7332 kWh/m²/daykwh/m²/day | Source Scope: city_coordinate_grid · Period: 2001-2020 | 2026-07-16 |
| 21 | Torino, Italy | 3.7174 kWh/m²/daykwh/m²/day | Source Scope: city_coordinate_grid · Period: 2001-2020 | 2026-07-16 |
| 22 | Toronto, Canada | 3.6518 kWh/m²/daykwh/m²/day | Source Scope: city_coordinate_grid · Period: 2001-2020 | 2026-07-16 |
| 23 | Montreal, Canada | 3.5424 kWh/m²/daykwh/m²/day | Source Scope: city_coordinate_grid · Period: 2001-2020 | 2026-07-16 |
| 24 | Iași, Romania | 3.5309 kWh/m²/daykwh/m²/day | Source Scope: city_coordinate_grid · Period: 2001-2020 | 2026-07-16 |
| 25 | Cluj-Napoca, Romania | 3.509 kWh/m²/daykwh/m²/day | Source Scope: city_coordinate_grid · Period: 2001-2020 | 2026-07-16 |
| 26 | Calgary, Canada | 3.5086 kWh/m²/daykwh/m²/day | Source Scope: city_coordinate_grid · Period: 2001-2020 | 2026-07-16 |
| 27 | Wien, Austria | 3.2916 kWh/m²/daykwh/m²/day | Source Scope: city_coordinate_grid · Period: 2001-2020 | 2026-07-16 |
| 28 | Munich, Germany | 3.2539 kWh/m²/daykwh/m²/day | Source Scope: city_coordinate_grid · Period: 2001-2020 | 2026-07-16 |
| 29 | Graz, Austria | 3.2357 kWh/m²/daykwh/m²/day | Source Scope: city_coordinate_grid · Period: 2001-2020 | 2026-07-16 |
| 30 | Linz, Austria | 3.2066 kWh/m²/daykwh/m²/day | Source Scope: city_coordinate_grid · Period: 2001-2020 | 2026-07-16 |
How to read this report
Use the compatible published metric climate_grid_solar_exposure_kwh_m2_day, keep one machine-readable unit family with direct source URLs, and sort descending.
- Compare the displayed value, unit, source date and geographic grain together.
- A city label does not change a regional observation into a city measurement.
Sources
Reuse this report
Use the canonical report URL for citation. JSON and Markdown contain the same rows and source records.