China increases its impact on the US renewables market

The good news for US renewablesis that, according to the New York Times,the Californian solar market has continued to expand rapidly through the recession, growing by a third last year.

However, thebad news (from an economic perspective, at least)is that much of this market is being snapped up by Chinese companies.Over the past three years, China's share of the Californian solar market has risen from 2% to 46%, in terms of supplied megawatts.At the same time, the share supplied by American companies has declined to 16%, from 43%.

This is more evidence of China'sfocus onrenewable energy technology, supported byits government which appreciated earlythe potential for substantial and rapid growth of the sector.Likewise, it is something of a blow for fledgling renewables businesses in US; although, as the report notes, the solar module market is highly volatile and "this quarter’s league leader could well be next year’s also-ran".