Interesting paper on the success of China’s solar industry:

China’s solar success gives hope for industrial policy, but it cannot necessarily be replicated in all sectors. Part of the success is likely because solar is a relatively young, high-tech industry, with more opportunities for learning than a more mature industry such as shipbuilding (Kalouptsidi 2018).

These results tell us that China’s solar subsidies worked for Chinese citizens. What they did for the world remains an open question. China may have squeezed out solar industries elsewhere, or the knowledge it generated may have spilled across borders fostering learning elsewhere just as it spilled over from city-to-city within China. What happened to global innovation, production and decarbonisation is the subject of ongoing research.

Whatever China’s industrial policy did to solar industries elsewhere, its most tangible legacy is solar panels cheap enough that the world is actually using them – not out of environmental conscience, but because they are the cheapest option. China’s taxpayers funded an investment that paid for itself, and this in turn cheapened solar as an energy source and reduced emissions.