4 ms·
Do you think more investment / subsidies weren't possible over the last few decades?
by bamboozled 6mo ago
Do you think more investment / subsidies weren't possible over the last few decades?
- Tade0 6mo agoThey were and Germany was actually going in that direction, but it took the manufacturing scale of China to create an incentive to introduce the hundreds of minor changes necessary to get costs down.
- leonidasrup 6mo agoDon't discount the importance of cheap Chinese (mostly coal) electricity. https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2021/02/18/chinas-cheap-electricity-crowds-out-foreign-polysilicon/ https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2021/02/18/chinas-cheap-electric...
- ZeroGravitas 6mo agoIf it is so cheap why does your source say it was subsidized?
- harvey9 6mo agoThat's not a contradiction. From the point of view of the factory or household consuming it, it is cheap.
- muskstinks 6mo agogermany stoped the investment and killed the solar industry. Not saying that China helped too, but we don't know if germany would have pushed through it without China.
- Tade0 6mo agoThat only happened after China started eating their (and Japan's) lunch. There's a great old chart which shows this: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:5_Largest_Producers_of_Solar_Photovoltaics,_%25_of_Total_World_Solar_PV_Production_2001-10.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:5_Largest_Producers_... Right around that time Germany's solar boom started in earnest: https://www.statista.com/chart/2397/solar-power-made-massive-strides-in-2013/ https://www.statista.com/chart/2397/solar-power-made-massive... Which was powered largely by Chinese panels. Since we can't have nice things, tariffs were imposed: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_13_501 https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_13_...