China has impressed the world with its rapid economic growth over the past four decades, during which time it has increased its real income per capita by more than 25 times. However, the attendant environmental costs have also been significant, jeopardizing economic and social gains from growth....

Achieving global goals for access to energy and mitigation of climate change will require a quadrupling of present levels of solar photovoltaic (PV) generation in the developing world by 2025 to reach around 950 gigawatt (GW)1. This represents an investment of more than US