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They 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 min
by Tade0 7mo ago
They 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 7mo 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 7mo agoIf it is so cheap why does your source say it was subsidized?
- harvey9 7mo agoThat's not a contradiction. From the point of view of the factory or household consuming it, it is cheap.
- muskstinks 7mo 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 7mo 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_...