As conflict in the Middle East rattles global oil markets and exposes critical shipping routes, China’s long-term investment in an “all of the above” energy policy, including renewables like solar, is beginning to bear fruit. With countries searching for alternative ways to produce energy that are less prone to wars, political tensions, embargoes, and other potential vulnerabilities, solar power has emerged as a smart solution, providing an efficient, low-cost, and abundant source of energy.
Unlike oil tankers or liquefied natural gas shipments, solar panels and battery systems cannot be blockaded in the Strait of Hormuz. Once deployed domestically, they are far less vulnerable to wars, sanctions, piracy, or instability in the Middle East. Countries around the world have started treating these technologies as a hedge against disruptions in traditional forms of energy, which dependence on one source risks creating.
For years, China invested heavily in dominating the manufacturing supply chain for solar panels, batteries, critical minerals, transformers, and other technologies that are rapidly becoming central to the global economy. From 2019 to 2025, it accounted for more than half of the world’s $1.1 trillion in clean energy investment, more than doubling spending levels by the United States. Significantly, Beijing has also used industrial policy, dumping, and unfair trade practices to help undermine U.S. domestic capacity in these areas.
HORMUZ 2.0: CHINA’S COMING CHOKEPOINT STRATEGY IN THE TAIWAN STRAIT
Following the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, China sees an opportunity to return to this playbook, exporting solar panels, batteries, and even electric vehicles, enabling nations to avoid fossil fuels and their inherent instability. The numbers have been stunning.
In late May, China released customs data demonstrating record sales of solar technologies shortly after the U.S. initiated joint military operations in Iran. Such numbers have been increasing for several weeks already, although due to high U.S. tariffs on Chinese-made solar products, this surge has not reached the U.S.
For decades, America largely defined energy security through oil production, pipelines, naval power, and access to shipping lanes. Those capabilities still matter enormously, but energy security in 2026 increasingly means controlling the infrastructure and supply chains behind “all of the above” energy systems. At the moment, China holds a commanding, if unfairly obtained, lead in that competition.
The U.S. is significantly increasing its own manufacturing of solar components, with at least 146 new solar and storage manufacturing facilities coming online in the last few years — all are part of the U.S. manufacturing renaissance that we are seeing. However, according to the International Energy Agency’s latest Photovoltaic Power Systems report, in 2023, China produced 98% of solar wafers, 92% of cells, and 85% of panels globally. After the Iran war, those numbers are likely to increase, given China’s policy direction.
Nations that control the next generation of energy infrastructure will have real economic, industrial, and diplomatic leverage for decades to come. America cannot afford to become strategically dependent on Beijing for technologies tied to its electric grid, industrial base, transportation systems, or critical infrastructure.
The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission has warned that Beijing could weaponize America’s reliance on Chinese critical mineral processing and other manufacturing sectors during future geopolitical confrontations. That’s why it’s critical that Americans begin to build more next-generation and non-traditional energy capabilities here at home.
As part of the domestic energy resilience agenda, American authorities should invest in producing solar panels, batteries, transformers, semiconductors, and grid equipment here in the U.S.
Moreover, they must streamline the permitting process for all energy projects and secure the availability of strategically important materials such as graphite, lithium, copper, rare-earth minerals, and others for future development.
The Chinese Communist Party recognizes how essential it is to have an advantage in non-traditional energy infrastructure development because these industries will determine the future of global commerce, international relations, and economic security.
America still has time to compete. It still has the workforce, innovation, natural resources, and industrial strength needed to lead. But doing so will require urgency, realism, and a recognition that energy security has become a top-tier national security question.
WILL CHINA MIRROR IRAN’S HORMUZ BLOCKADE STRATEGY?
If America fails to rebuild its own strategic manufacturing capabilities, it risks waking up one day to discover that Beijing controls not only too much of the world’s supply chains but also too much of its future.
Whoever controls the infrastructure behind 21st-century energy systems, including solar power and other energy supply chains, will have significant influence over the broader global economy, including its trade relationships, diplomatic leverage, and industrial base. The U.S. has the capacity to be that country, but it will need to start investing accordingly.
Alexander B. Gray is a Nonresident Senior Fellow at The Atlantic Council. He served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff of the White House National Security Council, 2019-21, during the First Trump Administration.