Solar power is now cheaper than grid electricity in cities across China which could drive a surge in uptake, according to new research.
Scientists found that all of the 344 cities they looked at could have cheaper electricity powered by solar energy, according to the study published in the journal Nature Energy.
Twenty-two percent of cities could also have solar systems that would generate lower-cost electricity than coal, according to the researchers, led by Jinyue Yan from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.
Kingsmill Bond, an energy strategist at Carbon Tracker who was not involved in the research, told Carbon Brief: “The conclusion that industrial and commercial solar is cheaper than grid electricity means that the workshop of the world can embrace solar.
Without subsidy and its distorting impacts, and driven by commercial gain.”