How Clean Energy Manufacturing is Expanding

New from me: How China's clean energy manufacturing boom is helping reduce CO2 emissions overseas. In 2024, China’s exports of solar panels, batteries and electric vehicles are shaved 1% off global emissions outside of China. When factoring in Chinese companies' plans for overseas manufacturing and clean power projects, the avoided CO2 increases to 1.5% of global emissions outside China and almost equal to the annual emissions of Australia. Manufacturing of clean energy products for exports was responsible for 1% of China's CO2 emissions in 2024 - much less than many accounts attributing China's recent emissions growth to the clean energy manufacturing boom would suggest. Moreover, the global CO2 savings from using these products for just one year acts to more than outweigh the emissions from manufacturing them. Over the expected lifetime of the products, their manufacturing emissions will be offset almost 40-fold. In absolute terms, China's clean energy industry is having the largest impact on emissions in Middle East and North Africa, Europe and South Asia. In relative terms, the impact in Sub-Saharan Africa, at around 3% of the regions emissions per year is also highly significant. The largest emission reductions are associated with direct clean-technology equipment exports – particularly solar panels – followed by plans for manufacturing at Chinese factories overseas, with overseas projects financed by Chinese investors a distant third. China's dominant position in clean energy manufacturing might suggest that there is little economic upside for other countries in the clean energy boom. However, equipment supply is only a minor part of the clean energy economy, with construction, project development and other downstream activities representing most of the value. Around three-fourths of the downstream value of China's exports is captured in other countries. There are good reasons to be concerned about the concentration of supply chains in China. When countries seek to diversify supply and reduce supply chain risks, the key is to focus on policies that foster new supply, not just blocking supply from China. Nevertheless, Chinese industries stand to benefit from increased exports as global demand for clean-energy technologies grows – and there are signs that this is already starting to shift China's political and diplomatic stance on climate action. Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/dckQSvGd

The World's Most Expensive Electric Grid Just Went Offline Forever💡 Remember when your smartphone suddenly made your old flip phone obsolete? A similar transformation is happening in energy right now, and it's coming from an unexpected place: China. Why this matters: Just three years ago, China was building coal plants at record speed while suffering widespread blackouts. Now they're producing more solar panels and wind turbines than the rest of the world combined. This shift isn't just about clean energy—it's reshaping the entire global energy market. Let's break down what's happening: 1. The Market Surprise - China installed more solar in September 2023 than the US did all year - Chinese-made EVs now dominating developing markets from Colombia to Kenya - Clean tech exports becoming major economic driver amid broader slowdown - Manufacturing scale making renewables cheaper than running existing coal plants 2. The Hidden Transformation - Coal plants shifting to backup power instead of full-time operation - Grid integration happening faster than experts predicted - Chinese tech spreading rapidly through global south - Strategic investments from 15 years ago paying off 3. What This Means For Everyone - Energy prices likely to keep falling as scale increases - Western markets facing tough choices about manufacturing - Global energy access expanding faster than expected - Climate goals suddenly looking more achievable Here's what makes this significant: While most people were focused on Twitter's latest drama or crypto crashes, China quietly built an unstoppable clean energy economy. They're not doing it to save the planet—they're doing it because it's become too profitable to ignore. The impact? Just like smartphones made flip phones obsolete practically overnight, we might be about to see a similar transformation in how we power our world. Question for energy leaders: How should Western markets respond to China's growing dominance in clean tech manufacturing? What opportunities exist for collaboration versus competition? #CleanEnergy #EnergyTransition #MarketSignals #GlobalTrade

Good News Thursday! America Just Completed Its Solar Supply Chain. For the first time, every major piece of a solar panel, from raw silicon to a finished module, can now be made in the United States. With Corning’s new ingot and wafer factory now operating in Michigan, America has officially onshored the final step in solar manufacturing. It’s a milestone years in the making and proof that the U.S. can compete globally in advanced clean-energy production. According to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), U.S. solar manufacturing capacity has expanded rapidly since late 2024: - 60 gigawatts of module capacity, up 37 percent since December - 3.2 gigawatts of solar-cell capacity, tripled from 1 GW last year - 28 gigawatts of inverter capacity, nearly 50 percent higher - 95 gigawatt-hours of battery-cell output, a major increase in storage strength - 23 new U.S. factories producing mounting systems added in less than a year Corning Incorporated expects to produce more than one million wafers per day, with 80 percent of capacity already contracted for the next five years. The U.S. is no longer just assembling panels; it is building a fully integrated solar industry from the ground up. Why does this matter? Solar is no longer just about panels. A true clean-energy economy depends on the full ecosystem that supports it—storage, grid integration, and domestic supply chains that keep production stable and affordable. A U.S.-based supply chain means shorter shipping distances, lower emissions from transport, and fewer global bottlenecks. It also anchors thousands of high-quality manufacturing jobs across the country, strengthening both local economies and national energy security. SEIA cautions that this momentum is fragile. New tariffs, shifting tax incentives, and regulatory uncertainty could slow expansion and risk another cycle of boom and bust. Keeping these factories active is not only an economic priority but a climate one. A stable policy environment will allow the U.S. to maintain its lead in clean-tech manufacturing. Instability could once again drive production overseas. The U.S. has finally built the full solar supply chain at home. The challenge now is to protect it. If America wants to lead the global energy transition, it begins with stability: consistent policy, long-term investment, and a commitment to keeping clean energy made in America. We’ve proven we can build it. The question is whether we can keep it. https://lnkd.in/e_eazVyZ

While Western governments argue over industrial policy, China is quietly building the innovation engine of the clean-energy future. China now files three times more clean tech patents than the rest of the world combined. And it's not slowing down. China is surging towards 300,000 patent applications per year, while the US and EU have stagnated and fallen behind. It's also not just solar and batteries. China leads across the board: EVs, heat pumps and inverters as well as all the power electronics to make it work. China has become the global centre of gravity for clean energy innovation. How did this happen? A few factors stand out: ➡️ Decades of consistent industrial strategy with clear 5 and 10-year targets ➡️ Innovation tightly coupled with manufacturing scale, enabling faster iteration and lower costs ➡️ A fully integrated ecosystem: co-located supply chains, aligned incentives and stable long-term policy signals The result isn't just more patents – it's the rapid commercialisation of new technologies that were barely imaginable a decade ago. Things like: ✅ EVs that can charge in 10 minutes ✅ Solar at US10c/W ✅ UHVDC cables that can carry 12 GW over thousands of kilometres ✅ Battery chemistries evolving at record speed ✅ Fast-response inverters that stabilise grids in milliseconds Patent leadership leads to manufacturing scale, cost reductions, booming exports and global dominance. This chart is an early signal of where clean-energy innovation is heading... #energy #renewables #energytransition

China’s clean-tech exports are driving down global CO2 emissions. And 91 per cent of new renewable power projects commissioned in 2024 were more cost-effective than any new fossil fuel alternatives. Two reports out on July 22 show rapidly renewable energy is growing and displacing polluting fossil fuels. Wind, solar + battery storage are outcompeting coal and gas for power generation. And China's huge clean-tech manufacture base is helping accelerate the green transition, albeit tarnished by ruthless competition and price cutting. The first study, an analysis for Carbon Brief by Lauri Myllyvirta, found that China's large, and growing, exports of solar panels, wind turbines, electric vehicles and batteries are displacing fossil fuel use and helping nations outside China trim their carbon emissions. These clean-tech exports in 2024 alone will cut planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions produced outside the country by 1 per cent, or about 220 million tonnes. Over the lifetime of the products, these exports will avoid 4 billion tonnes of CO2, said Mr Myllyvirta, senior fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI) and lead analyst at the Helsinki-based Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA). When factoring in China’s plans to build overseas manufacturing plants for clean-energy products, as well as to construct overseas clean-power projects, the avoided carbon increases to 350 million tonnes of CO2 per year. According to data from Sydney-based think-tank Climate Energy Finance (CEF), China’s direct foreign investment in clean-tech manufacturing and power generation totalled US$174 billion across 231 transactions between the start of 2023 and July 2025. Worries persist about overcapacity and ruthless price cutting and unfair competition in the China's clean-tech space. But the Chinese government has talked about reining in excessively low price competition, which is a clear barrier to stronger international cooperation, says Tim Buckley at CEF. The second study by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) said the addition of 582GW of renewable capacity globally in 2024 led to significant cost savings, avoiding fossil fuel use valued at about US$57 billion. In 2024, solar was on average 41 per cent cheaper than the lowest-cost fossil fuel alternatives, while onshore wind projects were 53 per cent cheaper, it added. More here in my story for The Straits Times: https://lnkd.in/gVFiZ7tN #ClimateChange #RenewableEnergy #FossilFuels #GreenTransition #China #Electricity #ElectricVehicles #Solar #Wind #BatteryStorage

It's been nine months in the gestation, and today I'm delighted to announce the delivery of a new Ember flagship report, on China's transition to clean energy. Why focus on China? Because it's where most of the action is, and because it's re-shaping energy realities for the rest of the world. As we show in the report, whether we're talking about wind and solar (share of generation doubling in four years, then doubling again), investment in clean energy (a third of the global total), grid and storage (tripling in three years) expansion, electrification of end-use sectors (forging ahead of the EU and US)... China is building more, using more and spending more than any other country. It's also true of manufacturing, where Chinese factories make 60% of the world's wind turbines and 80% of solar panels while also leading the supply of heat pumps, batteries and electric vehicles. Thanks to the Wright's Law economics of manufactured energy, prices come down as manufacturing volumes expand (which then drives further deployment, and then further price cuts, etc etc) - and it's predominantly Chinese investment that is realising the stunning price reductions we're seeing around the world. And if you're stuck in the rut of thinking that Chinese factories just make cheap imitations of Western-innovated goods, then ponder this - roughly 75% of patents lodged globally for clean energy goods are lodged by Chinese companies, up from just 5% in 2000. So if you're looking first at a country other than China to see how the world of energy is changing, you're looking in the wrong place. Ember's inaugural China Energy Transition Review is full of facts and stats, but also of context. There's the domestic political context - the ambition of building an 'ecological civilisation', enshrined in the constitution, which forms a double helix of development with the economic gains derived from having the clean tech sector grow three times faster than the economy overall. And the context outside China - a Global South that is replacing developed countries as the main market for Chinese clean energy goods, delivering energy affordably and getting countries off the fossil fuel import treadmill, while also cementing trade and diplomatic relationships. It's been a real pleasure to conceptualise and realise this report in the excellent company of many colleagues - Muyi Yang Biqing Yang Euan Graham Sam Butler-Sloss Aditya Lolla Shiyao Zhang Hannah Broadbent Chelsea Bruce-Lockhart Lauren Orso Ardhi Arsala R. Matt Ewen - and also newer friends associated with the International Society for Energy Transition Studies, especially Xunpeng (Roc) Shi. As they used to say in the pre-clean energy age - ' I commend it to you.' Not least because of something I haven't mentioned up to now, the implications for global fossil fuel consumption. They're big, profound, and just around the corner. https://lnkd.in/eMaDAEpp

This chart from The New York Times' recent piece on China's clean energy dominance isn't really about climate tech—it's a map of the future of all manufacturing. We pioneered the science behind lithium-ion batteries, solar cells, and EVs. China captured $143 billion in exports by mastering something we've dismissed as boring: process innovation. Here's what that means on the factory floor: While we chase the next breakthrough, Chinese manufacturers run millions of repetitions—tightening process windows from ±10% to ±0.1%, driving first-pass yield from 60% to 99.5%, cutting cycle times by seconds that compound into competitive advantage. They treat factories as learning systems, with in-line metrology feeding back to digital twins, SPC charts wallpapering control rooms, and playbooks that replicate success across dozens of facilities. The path forward isn't abandoning innovation—it's recognizing that process is innovation. Instrument every line. Protect recipes and process IP like the crown jewels they are. Publish OEE curves so teams see progress in real-time. Build right-sized, replicable modules instead of monument factories. Breakthroughs open doors. Process builds empires. The question is whether we'll trust the process before China owns every industry we invent. https://lnkd.in/eQBCC-Vq

There is a lot going on in the US solar supply chain, and it can be easy to get so focused on the trees that we miss the forest. In the last few days there have been a series of seemingly unconnected announcements that I think help paint that larger picture of a US solar industry that is rapidly expanding. The U.S. Energy Information Administration announced that solar additions will hit 36 GW this year, and that solar (53%) and storage (28%) will comprise 81% of new capacity additions in the US for 2024. Clean Energy Associates (CEA) estimated that by the end of 2024 there will be 35 GW of domestic PV module production capacity. GameChange Solar expects to have 35GW of tracker production capacity by the end of 2024, with 70-80% of the content being domestic, with Nextracker Inc. on a similar trajectory. SOLARCYCLE announced it is building a facility to produce solar glass from recycled solar glass. And here at the UItra Low-Carbon Solar Alliance we estimate that our members will have 20GW of EPEAT registered ultra low carbon solar panels in the market shortly. So while we still have work to do on the domestic PV supply chain, like meaningful wafer production capacity, we are seeing seeing growth throughout the solar supply chain in ways that is significantly reducing our reliance on and exposure to the challenging East Asia supply chain.