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Producers make profits by selling solar panels. Customers save money by buying solar panels. Unlikely that this would be the case if solar panels were not net
by dangom 8y ago
Producers make profits by selling solar panels. Customers save money by buying solar panels.
Unlikely that this would be the case if solar panels were not net energy producers.
- TeMPOraL 8y agoThat's a very bad assumption. Producers and customers make money exploiting price differentials on the market; this is not strictly tied to whether or not a product is a net benefit on a global scale. Hence I was asking about EROI calculation.
- chii 8y ago> Producers make profits by selling solar panels. Customers save money by buying solar panels. > Unlikely that this would be the case if solar panels were not net energy producers. > That's a very bad assumption. if you assume efficient and free markets, then this is a good assumption. If it takes more energy to create a panel than it's (average) lifetime energy output, consumers will find that it saves no cost, and thus would not buy them. Producers of panels will either have to work out how to reduce costs (or improve yield) to a rate which will net a return that the consumer considers worth investing in a purchase. So by the fact that panels exist today, it _must_ necessarily already have passed the threshold.
- TeMPOraL 8y agoEfficient and free markets is a wrong assumption. Those almost never exist in real life. (And it's not just the fault of regulatory overreach; if a seller or a buyer are exploiting information asymmetry, the market isn't efficient by definition.)
- odiroot 8y agoGovernment subsidies? Works for sugar industry.
- crdoconnor 8y agoThere are actually large tariffs on solar panels. Supposedly it's to protect the nascent solar industry in the US. In reality they're there to help incumbent oil/gas/utility interests. And nuclear - much like the registered lobbyist who wrote this article.