It’s official: solar became the cheapest source of new energy in lower-income countries this year, giving both companies and governments alike another reason to ditch coal and gas for renewables.

Data from Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) show that the average price of solar energy in almost 60 countries dropped to US$1.65 million per megawatt during 2016, just below wind at US$1.66 million per megawatt.

That’s based on average prices across 58 emerging markets, including China, India, and Brazil, and it means renewable energy will be an increasingly attractive way to go for companies investing in new power plants in the future.

“Solar investment has gone from nothing … five years ago to quite a lot,” BNEF analyst Ethan Zindler told Tom Randall at Bloomberg. “A huge part of this story is China, which has been rapidly deploying solar.”

Last year, China invested $103 billion in solar projects, more than the US ($44.1 billion), the UK ($22.2 billion), and Japan ($36.2 billion) put together.

Prices have also been dropping at auctions, where private firms bid against each other for big electricity contracts.

In January, a […]