The price for solar panels keeps dropping, and China is leading the deflation by a massive solar manufacturing buildout flooding the market. Tim Buckley says that we expect solar module prices to drop at least 10% annually over the rest of this decade as China triples its solar module production capacity by 2024 across the entire solar supply chain. Read more

A solar boom driven by falling costs and surging production capacity is putting the world economy on track for decarbonisation. A report released by Climate Energy Finance found China is leading by a huge margin, with the world on the brink of a dramatic acceleration in the transition from fossil fuels to clean energy. Read more

With polysilicon prices dropping a third since 2021, Climate Energy Finance calculates Australians could soon start to benefit from cheaper solar panels as a dive in raw material costs and a “boom” in global output delivers annual solar electricity price falls of 10% for the rest of the decade, and a halving by 2030. Read more

CEF’s new Solar Pivot report sees unprecedented trade and investment opportunities, in the order of hundreds of billions of dollars, for Australia to “ship sunshine”, embodying decarbonisation in its exports by using its solar and wind energy to process its world-leading critical minerals reserves, and to power manufacturing of energy transition materials. Australia has a once in a century opportunity for investment in renewables, exports, technology and employment, including in solar. It should seize it. Read more

A new report from Climate Energy Finance says booming solar investments is leading to a potential tipping point which could “dramatically accelerate the decline of the incumbent fossil fuel industry, and the decarbonisation of the world economy.” Read more

China Energy Policy Analyst Xuyang Dong argues: “Australia is being remade into an active and helpful middle power in its region with its own agency, constructively and strategically navigating its presence in the geopolitics of growing China-US rivalry.” Read more

Meanwhile, Xuyang Dong, a China energy policy analyst for Australian think tank Climate Energy Finance, said the Australian media’s hand-wringing over a possible war with China has clouded the country’s focus on the greater threat of climate change. “Diversifying Australia’s security strategy to encompass these concerns is inarguably important because China is no longer the only, or major, threat to the world, or to Australia,” Dong said on Tuesday. “Climate change and the energy crisis are clearly endangering Australia’s national interests now, and require more nuanced conversations to tackle.” Read more