China’s solar panels would work better with less air pollution Kevin Frayer/Getty Images Cleaning up China’s hazy skies would increase electricity generation from the country’s vast array of solar panels by 13 per cent and provide billions of dollars of extra revenue, according to a new analysis. China has more installed solar power capacity than any other country, at 170 gigawatts at the end of 2018. But it also has one of the world’s worst air pollution problems. In recent years the Chinese government has begun addressing the dangerously dirty air amid health concerns and protests by citizens . Now we know there could be a big economic benefit to the action too, as clearer skies boost the power-generating potential of solar panels. Bart Sweerts of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich took solar radiation data from 119 stations across China between 1960 and 2015, combining it […]