The solar power industry in Asia and other key growth markets is struggling in a competitive bloodbath. Companies are producing far more solar cells and panels than they can sell.
However, demand for solar power has been stimulated by the 70 percent fall in panel prices in the ast 2½ years, increasing solar's competitiveness against fossil fuels.
Is this how a renewable energy technology will finally be able to compete with electricity generated by burning coal, oil and natural gas, which produce global warming emissions? If so, we may come to see it as a process of creative destruction triggered by both state capitalism in China and so-called free-market forces in the West.