China leads a Brics nations shift into solar power: report

China’s vast clean-energy industry has spearheaded a Brics solar-power boom, with the bloc accounting for more than half of global generation last year, according to a new report.

Most Brics countries remain major fossil fuel producers, but the group together produced 51 per cent of the world’s solar energy in 2024 – up from 15 per cent a decade earlier, energy research firm Ember said in the report.

China accounted for the lion’s share, and alone produced 39 per cent, but India made up 6.3 per cent and Brazil totalled 3.5 per cent.

The bloc, which emerged from a term coined to capture the economic potential of Brazil, Russia, India, China and later South Africa, has grown into a political forum to rival the G7 and others. Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates and Indonesia are now members, with several partner states. (Saudi Arabia has been invited, but has yet to take a final decision.)

China, India and Brazil have emerged as clean energy powerhouses, each claiming a top-five rank globally in solar generation last year, according to Ember. And that growth is continuing. China’s solar output increased 42 per cent over the first four months of the year, while India and Brazil both notched up rises of more than 30 per cent.

China is also making the most of the combination between its technological expertise and tighter ties with the group, exporting US$9.4 billion worth of solar cells and panels to other Brics members since the start of 2024, according to BloombergNEF data.

Still, clean-energy leadership from founding members is not trickling down to everyone, even with China’s overseas investment clout. Indonesia and the newest partner countries including Kazakhstan, Nigeria and Malaysia, are currently building 25 gigawatts of new fossil fuel capacity, compared to only 10 gigawatts of clean power, researchers at Global Energy Monitor said in a report in April.

More than 60 per cent of that total under construction involved Chinese companies, as either developers or financiers. BLOOMBERG