What China's solar panel obsession means for the world
Business Daily

What China's solar panel obsession means for the world

B2Upper-intermediateOctober 18, 202617 min
  • Business & money

China's latest trade data show another huge surplus, putting the country on course for what could be a record $1.5 trillion trade surplus this year. In the first of two episodes examining China's export machine, we look at the country's massive solar panel industry. We hear from the so-called Sun King, Dr Jerry Shi, China's first solar billionaire, about the rise of solar power in China. Ed Butler also examines how solar power and other green technologies have helped drive the global response to climate change, while critics raise concerns about oversupply and its impact on industries and economies around...

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China, a world leader in the crucial industrial transition towards green energy. And we're

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levels of production. They've installed more solar panels across the country than any other

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0:00

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. Listen now wherever you get your BBC podcasts. I'm Ed Butler. Welcome to Business Daily from the BBC World Service. Today we're looking at China, a world leader in the crucial industrial transition towards green energy. And we're

1:11

focusing on just one of those green products, solar panels. Manufacturing has scaled up huge levels of production. They've installed more solar panels across the country than any other part of the world combined. In fact, in May last year, they were installing 100 solar panels a second. Yes, thanks to heavy investment, China has almost single-handedly made solar energy

1:36

cheaper in most countries than traditional fossil fuel generation. But is the industry sustainable? The manufacturing capacity of China in the solar industry is twice the global capacity. All of the five companies have money losing. So I think their loss is something like 2 billion US last year.

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