I wasn't sure whether or not to pin this on the back of a painfully long solar power thread or create another. My apologies if this thread appears redundant.
http://money.cnn.com/2011/11/30/tech...source=cnn_bin
The once high-flying solar power sector is headed for tough times, as a combination of slack demand and massive oversupply is leading to plummeting prices and profits for solar panel makers.
The past year was already grim. The Guggenheim Solar (TAN) exchange-traded fund is down 60% since January and sits even lower than it did following the crash in 2008.
Read this article earlier today but didn't feel motivated to post it. I thought the article made some good points about this being a necessary and natural process for emerging industries like solar.
The price reductions are necessary in order to attract the consumers that will be needed to keep the industry progressing. Companies who can't adapt go under, companies who can adapt emerge stronger than before.
The global slowdown in the West has crimped demand greatly.
This will weed out a lot of marginal companies.
What concerns me is that may take some rather good technologies with it, and that the unlucky happenstance of a company with an awesome technology simply being badly managed going under and delaying entry of that technology into the mass market is probably going to happen.
The entrance of Chinese panel manufacturers into the market has not helped Western firms.
The Chinese subsidizing their solar manufacturers may quite give them the edge when it comes to economies of scale that provide a long-term compe ive advantage.
yep, big consolidation, doesn't mean solar industry is collapsing, just shaking out.
China dumping panels on US, plus GE building panels in China, very hard to compete for US factories.
feed-in-tariffs would push demand very high and take pressure of new coal/nuke plants and their water cooling demands.
I'm not so much concerned about technologies being lost. If the tech from the company that went under is good enough to make money on, someone still in business is going to get it.
China subsidizing their industry is a concern, but the discussion about what to do (if anything) about that gets into tariffs, trade wars and such.
China spends about $30B/year on subsidies, and there all kinds of cheap lands and buildings available and of course the labor is super cheap.
I was reading about how our companies are trying to get tariffs on chinese imports claiming that they were dumping the market trying to drive them out of business.
but several US importers are dead set against the tariffs, they'd rather buy than make
china wiping the floor with its compe ors
Yes. There was an NPR program - I believe it was talk of the nation but maybe it was science friday - that talked about this recently. American producers want (who doesn't want subsidies - I know I know) some help or some actions to compete with the Chinese subsidization. I don't think trying to fight with tarrifs really helps much since it just raises the price. I think instead fighting fire with fire might be an option to be considered but I don't see it happening so I guess its moot.
We'll all be driving Chinese solar panels.
I'm not sure I see how cheap solar panels are a problem.
Chinese government subsidizes panels allowing Chinese companies to gain a huge grip on market and drive compe ors from other nations not operation with subsidies out of business. Prices then go up, or at the very least don't fall as fast as they could with more compe ion. Jobs that involves the renewable industry are then not located outside of China and no country is able to ramp up production because they've not developed the base sine China was able to force their companies out of business.
A lot of exaggeration for affect and to make the point clear, but there are definitely detriments when your companies are competing with others who's bottom line is helped out to a huge deal by the government - especially in an emerging industry.
Depends whether you're looking at expansion of the solar industry as a whole or specifically how many Americans we might be able to employ in that field.
I also have a bad taste in my mouth due to Chinese mass production. Are Chinese solar panels the next lead laced toys or toxic drywall waiting to happen?
Or you could look at it as the Chinese Government subsidizing the world to switch to renewable energy...I would think you would approve of that.
I believe solar power is an inevitability. Viewed as such, China isn't helping anything but their own position in the future. Good for China, not really good for us.
Or in the very least, not as good as it could be. Cheap energy - especially the renewable sort - is good for everyone.
If that is true, which coming from you, I question, then I say too bad. We need more US jobs. They can manufacture here. Not there.
Guess we'll have to invade China and convert them to capitalism.
Damn insidious commie bas s daring to sell us cheap solar panels...
Could be tricky since we'd have to ask them for a loan first in order to fund the operation.
Why do you think Obama sent those 2500 Marines to Australia?...
Not news to me.
Wife fancies herself an environmentalist - and a principled investor.
Took a f*&^%ing bath on a couple of solar companies.
Thread sucks.
tariffs dont do , if the govt doesnt support the local system in place with incentives to make it beneficial to the consumer to purchase...cutting the rebates and prices sold back to the grid, doesnt make it look beneficial to the consumer long term....consumers could give a about the climate anyway when they try to decrease as much spending and trying to squeeze out a buck profit....
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