• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
The climate news that makes a difference.
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Cities & Communities
  • Electric Mobility
  • Heat & Power
  • Community Climate Finance
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Cities & Communities
  • Electric Mobility
  • Heat & Power
  • Community Climate Finance
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Cities & Communities
  • Electric Mobility
  • Heat & Power
  • Community Climate Finance
  FEATURED
REVEALED: Imperial Oil, Alberta Regulator Knew of Toxic Seepage at Kearl Mine for Years, Kept First Nation in the Dark October 3, 2023
Oil and Gas, Buildings Drive 2.1% Rise in Canada’s Climate Pollution October 2, 2023
Shell CEO Doubles Down on Renewable Cuts Despite Internal Pushback October 2, 2023
Leading Climate Models Underestimate Clean Energy Progress, Overstate Cost, Study Finds October 2, 2023
UAE Holds Major Oil and Gas Conference Before Hosting COP 28 Climate Summit October 2, 2023
Next
Prev

Solar Price Beats Grid Electricity in Every City Across China

August 16, 2019
Reading time: 3 minutes

Port of San Diego/flickr

Port of San Diego/flickr

13
SHARES
 

Subsidy-free solar is now less expensive than grid electricity in virtually every city across China, according to a paper published this week in the journal Nature Energy.

“While previous studies of nations such as Germany and the United States have concluded that solar could achieve grid parity by 2020 in most developed countries, some have suggested China would have to wait decades,” Carbon Brief reports. But in a finding that “could boost the prospects of industrial and commercial solar,” the researchers found that projects in every city they analysed “could be built today without subsidy, at lower prices than those supplied by the grid, and around a fifth could also compete with the nation’s coal electricity prices.”

  • The climate news you need. Subscribe now to our engaging new weekly digest.
  • You’ll receive exclusive, never-before-seen-content, distilled and delivered to your inbox every weekend.
  • The Weekender: Succinct, solutions-focused, and designed with the discerning reader in mind.
Subscribe

“The conclusion that industrial and commercial solar is cheaper than grid electricity means that the workshop of the world can embrace solar,” said Carbon Tracker energy strategist Kingsmill Bond, “without subsidy and its distorting impacts, and driven by commercial gain.”

The study, led by Prof Jinyue Yan of Sweden’s Royal Institute of Technology, attributes the rapid drop in solar prices to a combination of past government subsidies and overinvestment in “redundant construction and overcapacity”. However, beginning with subsidy cuts last year, “the Chinese government has been trying to lead the PV industry onto a more sustainable and efficient development track,” focusing less on scale and more on the quality of its end product. That shift “brought the industry to a crossroads” and focused more attention on the path to grid parity.

Carbon Brief adds that “declining costs of solar technology, particularly crystalline silicon modules, mean the trend in China is also playing out around the world,” with the International Renewable Energy Agency projecting that grid parity for solar will become a global norm beginning early next year.

But Jenny Chase, head of solar analysis at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, said the study contains “fairly old news” that may not be enough in itself to drive a surge in solar uptake.

“This is partly because of the long-term thinking required for investment to be seen as worthwhile,” Carbon Brief explains, when “the lifetime of a PV system tends to be around two decades, whereas the average lifespan of a Chinese company is only around eight years”. The even simpler explanation, Chase added, is that “companies just can’t be bothered a lot of the time—there are roofs all over Europe where solar could probably save money, but people are not jumping to do it.”

A “much more exciting” development last year was when China offered solar projects a 20-year guarantee of the current price for coal-fired power, in what amounted to a low feed-in tariff to support “a lot of nice, low-risk projects.” But she said there’s less immediate buy-in when a country sees solar hit the threshold where it beats other forms of electricity in head-to-head competition. “Grid parity solar is never as popular as subsidized solar, and ironically you don’t generally have a rush to build grid parity solar because you may as well wait until next year and get cheaper solar,” she told Carbon Brief.



in China, Cities & Communities, Community Climate Finance, Ending Emissions, Energy / Carbon Pricing & Economics, Energy Subsidies, Heat & Power, Solar

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

Dawn Ellner/flickr
Carbon Levels & Measurement

Oil and Gas, Buildings Drive 2.1% Rise in Canada’s Climate Pollution

October 2, 2023
62
Solarimo/pixabay
Ending Emissions

Leading Climate Models Underestimate Clean Energy Progress, Overstate Cost, Study Finds

October 2, 2023
261
Northvolt plant in Sweden, Spisen/wikimedia commons
Batteries / Storage

Quebec Lands $7B Battery Gigafactory Investment from Sweden’s Northvolt

October 2, 2023
62

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

jasonwoodhead23/flickr

REVEALED: Imperial Oil, Alberta Regulator Knew of Toxic Seepage at Kearl Mine for Years, Kept First Nation in the Dark

October 3, 2023
147
Ramon FVelasquez/Wikipedia

Shell CEO Doubles Down on Renewable Cuts Despite Internal Pushback

October 2, 2023
142
Iota 9/Wikimedia Commons

‘Huge Loss’ for Local Green Economy as Vancouver Shutters Its Economic Commission

September 28, 2023
359
YouTube

UAE Holds Major Oil and Gas Conference Before Hosting COP 28 Climate Summit

October 3, 2023
75
Solarimo/pixabay

Leading Climate Models Underestimate Clean Energy Progress, Overstate Cost, Study Finds

October 2, 2023
261
Jon Sullivan/flickr

Thorold Gas Peaker Plant Won’t Be Built After Unanimous City Council Vote

September 21, 2023
880

Recent Posts

Dawn Ellner/flickr

Oil and Gas, Buildings Drive 2.1% Rise in Canada’s Climate Pollution

October 2, 2023
62
Northvolt plant in Sweden, Spisen/wikimedia commons

Quebec Lands $7B Battery Gigafactory Investment from Sweden’s Northvolt

October 2, 2023
62
GFDL/Wikimedia Commons

Clean Energy Funding Isn’t Just About Money, Policy Expert Warns

October 2, 2023
39
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center/Wikimedia Commons

Climate Change Brings Rapid Ice Loss to Antarctica, Arctic, Swiss Glaciers

October 2, 2023
58
Duffins Agriculture Preserve/North Country House Media via Greenbelt Foundation

Green Space Groups Gear for Bigger Fights After Ontario Reverses Greenbelt Land Grab

September 28, 2023
221
DiscoverEganville/wikimedia commons

EV Rentals to Improve Transportation Access for Ontario Townships

September 28, 2023
82
Next Post
werner22brigitte / Pixabay

Water Shortages in 17 Countries Put One-Quarter of Global Population at Risk

The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

Copyright 2023 © Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Proudly partnering with…

scf_withtagline
The Energy Mix - Energy Central
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Cities & Communities
  • Electric Mobility
  • Heat & Power
  • Community Climate Finance

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}