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This is really small scale compared to elsewhere in the world. Is this news because of the climate of Wisconsin being unusual for solar energy?
by lbrito 2y ago
This is really small scale compared to elsewhere in the world. Is this news because of the climate of Wisconsin being unusual for solar energy?
- greenthrow 2y agoIt's news because the US is a big time laggard in renewables for a variety of terrible reasons. (Mostly oil/coal lobbying and utility monopolies stifling competition.)
- rootusrootus 2y ago> the US is a big time laggard in renewables Could you clarify this statement? For Solar, the US seems to be doing fine. Not leading, but not a laggard by any definition. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_by_country https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_by_country And in total capacity: https://www.statista.com/statistics/267233/renewable-energy-capacity-worldwide-by-country/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/267233/renewable-energy-... Solar & wind are the cheapest energy sources by far, and battery tech has gotten much better and much cheaper very quickly. The free market in the US is very responsive, AFAIK we're building new renewable capacity as quickly as it can be attached to the grid.
- Temporary_31337 2y agoI assume OP was talking about US manufactured solar panels. Just buying PV from China is good for China only- they keep the profits, expertise and can choose to deploy the best panels for themselves if they feel the need.
- nojvek 2y agoPV themselves aren’t the most expensive part and US PVs aren’t double the cost of China. Competition is progress.
- burkaman 2y agoIt's news because new solar farms are one of the things this site reports on. See this story from a few weeks ago for example: https://electrek.co/2024/10/21/a-solar-farm-comes-online-on-a-coal-ash-landfill-site-in-west-virginia/ https://electrek.co/2024/10/21/a-solar-farm-comes-online-on-.... They report on other countries as well, here's a story about a much larger project in China from yesterday: https://electrek.co/2024/11/14/china-worlds-largest-open-sea-offshore-solar-farm/ https://electrek.co/2024/11/14/china-worlds-largest-open-sea.... One reason this one could be notable though is that the panels are US-made, I think that is somewhat unusual.
- philipkglass 2y agoThe solar panels are made by First Solar, which has a significant market share for panels in large US solar farms. https://www.pv-magazine.com/2023/11/18/weekend-read-the-fruitful-search-for-other-thin-films/ https://www.pv-magazine.com/2023/11/18/weekend-read-the-frui... First Solar is not the only cadmium telluride solar manufacturer but it is by far the biggest. It is also the only thin-film company in the list of top 10 solar manufacturers by shipments in the 2022 ranking published by California-based SPV Market Research. First Solar is also in the top 10 in the latest ranking from Taiwan-based InfoLink. ... Paula Mints, chief market research analyst at SPV Market Research, said that First Solar had a 36% share of the United States utility-scale solar market in 2022. “I would look at their 2023 share of the US utility-scale market as similar,” she said.
- burkaman 2y agoThat is a lot more than I realized, I guess US-made is not really noteworthy then.