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According to the new "IEA Special Report on Solar PV Global Supply Chains," Global Solar panel manufacturing capacity has shifted more from Europe, Japan and the United States to China in the past decade. China is already leading the way in solar panel investment and innovation.

'China's industrial and innovation policies that focus on expanding solar panel production and markets have made solar photovoltaic the cheapest power generation technology in many parts of the world, and have led to imbalances in the solar supply chain,' the report said. China's share in all key manufacturing stages of solar panels is already over 80% today, and in important factors such as polysilicon and wafers will exceed 95% in the next few years.

The report provides a comprehensive analysis of the world's solar pv supply chain, from raw materials to finished products, covering areas such as energy consumption, emissions, employment, production costs, investment, trade and financing performance. The report found that the electricity-intensive processing of solar pv is today largely powered by fossil fuels because China, where solar pv is concentrated, still relies heavily on coal. Increasing the decarbonization of electricity supply and diversifying the solar pv supply chain can both help reduce reliance on fossil fuels.

"Diversification is one of the key strategies to reduce supply chain risks worldwide," the report said. "New solar PV production facilities along the global supply chain could attract $120 billion of investment by 2030, and the solar PV industry could increase employment in the photovoltaic industry to 1 million by 2030."

"China has helped reduce the cost of solar pv worldwide," IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said in a press release. "At the same time, the geographic concentration level of the global supply chain poses potential challenges for governments to address. Accelerating the clean energy transition around the world puts further pressure on these supply chains to meet growing demand, but it also provides an opportunity for other countries and regions to help diversify production and increase resilience."