China’s solar power slowdown is great news for India

China is slamming the brakes on its solar power sector which is the world’s largest—a move that could help India take the lead in global renewable energy adoption. With its domestic solar industry seeing a downturn, the Chinese government has halted the allocation of quotas for new projects till further notice. It has also brought down clean-energy tariffs by at least 6%, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) newspaper reported. This is great news for India, coming at a time when the country is chasing a target of 100,000 megawatts (MW) of solar power capacity by 2022. That’s mostly because a slowdown in China’s solar industry could result in a fall in solar panel costs globally. Nearly 90% of all solar panels used in India are imported, predominantly from China. India’s solar power sector has exploded in the last few years in spite of multiple policy and regulatory hurdles. The country now has nearly 22,000 MW of solar power capacity. Last year, nearly 40% of all new capacity additions to the electricity grid came from solar projects.