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>Those investments were driven by U.S. tax incentives and the falling costs of imported panels, mostly from China, which together made solar power competitive w
by creaghpatr 8y ago
>Those investments were driven by U.S. tax incentives and the falling costs of imported panels, mostly from China, which together made solar power competitive with natural gas and coal.
Why not manufacture the panels in the US? It would create jobs and save the environmental impact of shipping billions of dollars of panels across the pacific- freight ships are brutal when it comes to emissions.
- rtkwe 8y agoBecause those costs are externalities that aren't properly factored into the cost of panels anywhere. The same is true for pretty much any product with an environmental impact in either it's creation or transport to market. The few places it does get factored in and regulated are places like fishing where the entire industry nearly crashed because of overfishing. Hopefully the same doesn't have to be true before other environmental externalities like shipping pollution get regulated properly.
- metalliqaz 8y agoUS labor is much more expensive
- icebraining 8y agoDoes the US have the raw materials? Shipping them in prior to manufacture might be even worse in terms of environmental impact (assuming some material is wasted during manufacture).