Cheap Green Tech Allows Faster Path To Electrification For the Developing World (japantimes.co.jp)
(Saturday January 24, 2026 @05:34PM (EditorDavid)
from the easy-being-green dept.)
- Reference: 0180650738
- News link: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/01/24/1938220/cheap-green-tech-allows-faster-path-to-electrification-for-the-developing-world
- Source link: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/environment/2026/01/23/energy/india-cheap-green-tech/
Slashdot reader [1]Mr. Dollar Ton summarizes [2]this article from Bloomberg :
> According to a new report from think tank "Ember", the availability of cheap green tech can have developing countries profit from earlier investment and skip steps in the transition from fossil to alternatives.
>
> India is put forward as an example. While China's rapid electrification has been hailed as a miracle, by some measures, India is moving ahead faster than China did when it was at similar levels of economic development. It's an indication that clean electricity could be the most direct way to boost growth for other developing economies.
>
> That's mainly because India has access to solar panels and electric cars at a much lower price than China did about a decade ago. Chinese investments lowered the costs of what experts call "modular technologies" — the production of each solar panel, battery cell and electric car enables engineers to learn how to make it more efficiently.
The think tank's team even argues "that countries such as India, which don't have significant domestic fossil-fuel reserves, will become 'electrostates' that meet most of their energy needs through electricity generated from clean sources," according to the article:
> No country is an electrostate yet, [says Ember strategist Kingsmill Bond], but countries are increasingly turning to green electricity to power their economies. Nations that are less developed than India will see even more advantages as the cost of electricity technologies, from solar panels and electric vehicles to battery components and minerals, continue to fall.
>
> Neither India nor China is going electric purely to cut emissions or meet climate targets, says Bond. They're doing so because it makes economic sense, particularly for India, which imports more than 40% of its primary energy in the form of coal, oil and gas, according to the International Energy Agency. "To grow and have energy independence, India needs to reduce the terrible burden of fossil-fuel imports worth $150 billion each year," said Bond. "India needs to find other solutions...."
>
> [I]f countries like India find ways to grow electrotech manufacturing without absolute dependence on Chinese equipment, electrification could speed up further. With the U.S. and Europe continuing to add exclusions for Chinese-linked electrotech, countries like India will have an incentive to invest in their own manufacturing capacity. "We are probably at a moment of peak Chinese dominance in the electrotech system, as the rest of the world starts to wake up and realize that this is the energy future," he said.
[1] https://slashdot.org/~Mr.+Dollar+Ton
[2] https://www.japantimes.co.jp/environment/2026/01/23/energy/india-cheap-green-tech/
> According to a new report from think tank "Ember", the availability of cheap green tech can have developing countries profit from earlier investment and skip steps in the transition from fossil to alternatives.
>
> India is put forward as an example. While China's rapid electrification has been hailed as a miracle, by some measures, India is moving ahead faster than China did when it was at similar levels of economic development. It's an indication that clean electricity could be the most direct way to boost growth for other developing economies.
>
> That's mainly because India has access to solar panels and electric cars at a much lower price than China did about a decade ago. Chinese investments lowered the costs of what experts call "modular technologies" — the production of each solar panel, battery cell and electric car enables engineers to learn how to make it more efficiently.
The think tank's team even argues "that countries such as India, which don't have significant domestic fossil-fuel reserves, will become 'electrostates' that meet most of their energy needs through electricity generated from clean sources," according to the article:
> No country is an electrostate yet, [says Ember strategist Kingsmill Bond], but countries are increasingly turning to green electricity to power their economies. Nations that are less developed than India will see even more advantages as the cost of electricity technologies, from solar panels and electric vehicles to battery components and minerals, continue to fall.
>
> Neither India nor China is going electric purely to cut emissions or meet climate targets, says Bond. They're doing so because it makes economic sense, particularly for India, which imports more than 40% of its primary energy in the form of coal, oil and gas, according to the International Energy Agency. "To grow and have energy independence, India needs to reduce the terrible burden of fossil-fuel imports worth $150 billion each year," said Bond. "India needs to find other solutions...."
>
> [I]f countries like India find ways to grow electrotech manufacturing without absolute dependence on Chinese equipment, electrification could speed up further. With the U.S. and Europe continuing to add exclusions for Chinese-linked electrotech, countries like India will have an incentive to invest in their own manufacturing capacity. "We are probably at a moment of peak Chinese dominance in the electrotech system, as the rest of the world starts to wake up and realize that this is the energy future," he said.
[1] https://slashdot.org/~Mr.+Dollar+Ton
[2] https://www.japantimes.co.jp/environment/2026/01/23/energy/india-cheap-green-tech/
Longer term trend (Score:2)
by JoshuaZ ( 1134087 )
This trend has been going on for a while. It is not just in large countries like India and China but in many smaller or even poorer developing countries. Wind and solar work especially well if one doesn't have the infrastructure to make a single large grid. Since large-scale fossil fuel plants naturally need a large grid, small sets of solar panels work really well. There are some really neat charities helping with this, such as SELF, the Solar Electric Light Fund [1]https://www.self.org/ways-to-give/ [self.org].
This
[1] https://www.self.org/ways-to-give/
infrastructure (Score:3)
Makes sense. Countries with less pre-existing electrical infrastructure don't have as much sunk costs for solar to compete against.
Solar can also be implemented at small scale, unlike an electrical grid, which optimizes toward large sizes.
Re: (Score:1)
> Makes sense. Countries with less pre-existing electrical infrastructure don't have as much sunk costs for solar to compete against. Solar can also be implemented at small scale, unlike an electrical grid, which optimizes toward large sizes.
It's pretty much a repeat of the developing world skipping land lines and going straight to cellular phones. Less expensive equipment that is a better fit for local conditions.
Re: (Score:2)
"...don't have as much sunk costs for solar to compete against."
Why does solar, or anything else, have to compete with sunk costs? Do you know what sunk costs are? Apparently not because existing electrical infrastructure is not a sunk cost by your own definition (you NEVER compete against a sunk cost because it's a sunk cost).
"...unlike an electrical grid,.."
Solar and "electrical grid" are not competing technologies. Do you know what a grid is?