US-China Solar Cooperation

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China is leading the world in annual investments in clean energy. It’s number one in the world for the amount of solar panels, wind turbines, and EV batteries it manufactures. The production scale has driven down solar energy prices by 85% since 2010. Meanwhile, the US gets about 21% of its energy from clean energy sources and last year the growth of solar capacity outpaced wind. Chinese-made solar panels have been key to the US achieving this, claiming 64% of the US market in 2020.

Many in the US are calling for the US to ramp up domestic competitive production and diversify the supply chain. More competition in the solar industry won’t be a bad thing, but we can expect China to be a major solar provider in the US and around the world for many years to come.

Hi, I’m Kyle Obermann, Nature Contributor for the China Current, showing China’s wild side. In this special episode, I’m taking you to a 10-megawatt solar energy project in Nevada that I visited in my recent documentary series, US-China Journey to Net Zero.

Strategic competition can push the world to innovate faster, producing the technologies desperately needed to solve global problems and driving down prices. At the same time, global collaboration and mutual reliance can also ensure that we are hitting targets on time, which we direly need to do.