Within the Asia-Pacific region, India has a low cost of renewable energy generation. Last week, Wood Mackenzie, the consultancy, said the cost of PV levelled generation in India had fallen to $38 per megawatt hour so far this year, 14 per cent lower than coal-fired power.

Alex Whitworth, head of research at Wood Mackenzie, said abundant solar resources, a large market and competitive advantages meant the cost of solar in India was half that of many other countries in the region.

By comparison, the current cost of onshore wind power in India is $49 per megawatt-hour, Wood Mackenzie said.

The agency says Australia is the second cheapest renewable energy country in the Asia-Pacific region. The cost of solar levelled generation in the country is expected to fall to $48 per megawatt-hour in 2020, a price that will undermine the competitiveness of all fossil fuel generation.

The challenges of grid stability and intermittent generation constraints have been recurring in Australia, Whitworth added, but further improvements in energy storage technology could help bring the country's supply and demand into balance