3 ms·

Regulation isn’t a good moat. Solar panels are a commodity- it’s a race to the bottom. Solar looks like (and has been) the storybook case of a positive trend th

Regulation isn’t a good moat. Solar panels are a commodity- it’s a race to the bottom. Solar looks like (and has been) the storybook case of a positive trend that makes for a poor investment.

jacquesm 4y ago
You could say the same thing about almost any mature technology though. Meanwhile there are incredible amounts of money being made in solar. A friend has a solar installation business, he's been hiring more people year after year and is doing very well for himself and his co-founders.
- raspberry1337 4y ago
  Do you understand that solar as a economic investment, and the economics of one dude that install solars, are very different things?
  - jacquesm 4y ago
    What a strange question. Yes, of course I understand that. But the two, even though they are 'very different things' are also intricately related in that if the one doesn't work neither does the other.
    - raspberry1337 4y ago
      That's not true at all, just because one individual person can make a temporary, big profit in an industry, that does not mean that the industry itself is profitable. Industry has large investment costs and takes time to become profitable, sometimes it never does.
nostrademons 4y ago
Regulation is a great moat. I think that many of the most visible parts of the solar value chain (the panels and the installers) are very competitive industries that are going to be poor investments. However, there's always some segment of the value chain that is condensed into a few technologically-advanced and capital-intensive companies. I think we'll see this with solar as well, and there will be trillion-dollar companies that come out of it.
jeffbee 4y ago
> poor investment https://www.google.com/finance/quote/ENPH:NASDAQ?sa=X&window=MAX https://www.google.com/finance/quote/ENPH:NASDAQ?sa=X&window...

3 ms·

Regulation isn’t a good moat. Solar panels are a commodity- it’s a race to the bottom. Solar looks like (and has been) the storybook case of a positive trend th

by nonethewiser 4y ago

Regulation isn’t a good moat. Solar panels are a commodity- it’s a race to the bottom. Solar looks like (and has been) the storybook case of a positive trend that makes for a poor investment.

jacquesm 4y ago
You could say the same thing about almost any mature technology though. Meanwhile there are incredible amounts of money being made in solar. A friend has a solar installation business, he's been hiring more people year after year and is doing very well for himself and his co-founders.
- raspberry1337 4y ago
  Do you understand that solar as a economic investment, and the economics of one dude that install solars, are very different things?
  - jacquesm 4y ago
    What a strange question. Yes, of course I understand that. But the two, even though they are 'very different things' are also intricately related in that if the one doesn't work neither does the other.
    - raspberry1337 4y ago
      That's not true at all, just because one individual person can make a temporary, big profit in an industry, that does not mean that the industry itself is profitable. Industry has large investment costs and takes time to become profitable, sometimes it never does.
nostrademons 4y ago
Regulation is a great moat. I think that many of the most visible parts of the solar value chain (the panels and the installers) are very competitive industries that are going to be poor investments. However, there's always some segment of the value chain that is condensed into a few technologically-advanced and capital-intensive companies. I think we'll see this with solar as well, and there will be trillion-dollar companies that come out of it.
jeffbee 4y ago
> poor investment https://www.google.com/finance/quote/ENPH:NASDAQ?sa=X&window=MAX https://www.google.com/finance/quote/ENPH:NASDAQ?sa=X&window...