How China became solar royalty

By Emily Feng,

Adrian Ma, Cooper Katz McKim, Kate Concannon

Published August 27, 2024 at 4:20 PM EDT

Cate Blanchett, Andrew Upton and Dr Zhengrong Shi posing on the rooftop of the Sydney Theatre Company in 2010

When Shi Zhengrong started making solar panels at the turn of the century, there was basically no solar industry in China. But in the decades that followed, the nation started heavily investing in renewables. Today, we dig into how China became a leader in solar power while following the story of one man: the Sun King.

Related episodes:
Rooftop solar's dark side (Apple / Spotify)
The debate at the heart of new electricity transmission (Apple / Spotify)

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Emily Feng

Emily Feng is NPR's Beijing correspondent.

See stories by Emily Feng

Adrian Ma

Adrian Ma covers work, money and other "business-ish" for NPR's daily economics podcast The Indicator from Planet Money.

Cooper Katz McKim

Cooper Katz McKim is an Assistant Producer for NPR's daily economics podcast The Indicator from Planet Money. Before The Indicator, McKim reported at NPR Member stations in South Carolina and Wyoming. At Wyoming Public Radio, he filed stories with NPR's Environment And Energy Collaborative on bankruptcies, carbon capture and economic transition. He's won a national Edward R. Murrow Award for Best Use of Sound. More recently, he's served as a podcast producer at Sports Illustrated and the HISTORY Channel. He graduated from Tufts University and now resides in Denver, Colorado, where he spends his time mountain biking and playing jazz piano. [Copyright 2024 NPR]

Kate Concannon

Kate Concannon is the Supervising Senior Editor at The Indicator from Planet Money. She leads this small, collaborative team of hosts, reporters and producers in making sense of crucial, but often complex and confusing, economic news in just 10 minutes a day.