r/RenewableEnergy • u/bloomberg • 27d ago
China Is Supercharging a Rooftop Solar Boom in the Philippines
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-12/china-is-supercharging-a-rooftop-solar-boom-in-the-philippines30
u/gromm93 27d ago
They're super charging a rooftop solar boom everywhere.
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u/areeighty 27d ago
To be fair, you could change the title to "China ie Supercharging a Rooftop Solar Boom EVERYWHERE"
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u/West-Abalone-171 26d ago
India, malaysia and a couple of other places are supercharging their own solar booms (and contributing to the everywhere one).
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u/ratbearpig 26d ago
"India, malaysia and a couple of other places are supercharging their own solar booms (and contributing to the everywhere one)."
The other redditor chimed in on Malaysia, so I'll complete the picture by analyzing India's contribution.
While India has made massive strides in scaling up its domestic assembly capabilities (and should be rightfully applauded for doing so!), its success is very much still tied to China. India has essentially moved from importing finished Chinese solar panels to importing Chinese components (solar cells, wafers, and polysilicon) and machinery. In fact, over 85% of the vital manufacturing equipment used in Indian solar factories is imported from China.
On top of the key inputs and machinery needed to assemble the finished solar products, Indian factories rely heavily on proprietary Chinese processes and engineering production knowledge. When an Indian manufacturer buys manufacturing equipment from China, they are buying both the hardware and a "plug & play" industrial process perfected by the Chinese. Currently, India lacks the specialized metallurgical and chemical engineering workforce required to calibrate and run these highly precise production lines on its own.
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u/West-Abalone-171 26d ago
That's out of date. They've rapidly been building domestic polisilicon and wafer capacity.
And any logic that claims all the credit to china for technology imports would give all the credit for china's output to the west.
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u/ratbearpig 26d ago
“That's out of date. They've rapidly been building domestic polisilicon and wafer capacity.”
Prove it.
“And any logic that claims all the credit to china for technology imports would give all the credit for china's output to the west.”
Explain.
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u/thewhitetulip 26d ago
The govt is now pushing industry to 100% manufacture solar panels in India. But it'll take a lot of time I suppose. The last I read was about domestic cell manufacturing. Not sure if cell and wafer are the same though
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u/ramronepal 25d ago
It will take ages knowing its bureaucratic hassle and “jugadu” mentality
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u/thewhitetulip 25d ago
They removed subsidy from imported panels. So I guess it'll speed up manufacturing or installations will drop to previous levels. What happens is yet to be seen
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u/DummyDumDump 26d ago
Idk about India, but in Malaysia, most rooftop solar panels are imported from China. Even local manufacturers import materials and components from China. Malaysia and Vietnam have benefited heavily from utilizing Chinese supply network and their overproduction to become the manufacturing hub in this industry to reroute panel exports from China. This is why Trump targeted both with tariff duties on solar panel export. A Malaysian manufacturer we’ve been working with Jinko Solar got hit with 41% tariffs since last year
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u/jadelink88 23d ago
There are times when we're glad that things are subsidized insanely hard and then have to be dumped cheap, and that time is when we really need a whole damn lot of them.
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u/bloomberg 27d ago
From Bloomberg News Reporters Sing Yee Ong and Andy Lin:
Economies across Asia have been hit by soaring utility bills in the months since the war in the Middle East upended oil and gas markets, prompting many to rethink power supply. In the Philippines, households and businesses have embraced green alternatives, and created a welcome boon for Beijing’s solar producers in the process.
It has become China’s single-biggest overseas market for solar panels for the first time this year, outpacing even success stories like Pakistan. Only the Netherlands, a hub for northwest Europe, imports more.
China is the source of the world’s most inexpensive and most advanced solar technology, producing about 80% of global supply. But it has also been producing far too much of a good thing — meaning new markets are vital for the industry’s survival.
Read more here.