A marked decline in spending on renewable energy projects during the first half of the year has suggested that wind and solar have yet to become fully competitive with fossil fuel power generation despite the wealth of reports saying they already are cheaper in some parts of the world. BloombergNEF reports that spending on renewable projects between January and June totaled US$117.6 billion, which was 14 percent less than a year earlier and the lowest amount for a comparable period since 2013. The decline was evident in all key renewables markets, BloombergNEF said, but particularly so in China. The reason: Beijing is cutting subsidies for solar and wind, and trying to make them stand on their own two feet without government support. China has been struggling with subsidies, particularly for solar projects, for a couple of years already. In 2017, these hit US$15.6 billion (100 billion yuan) and the […]