Everyone is buying from China. Nobody has the resources and cheap enough labour and fiscal policies that control labour wages and export costs to keep the panels as cheap as what China can make. It’s their century now.
Thing is, does it matter? Once they’re made they’ll be used for the next 20 years, it’s not like the stock needs constant replenishment because it can be used precisely once like LNG.
China is worried about global warming. They realised there was only so much they could do themselves. They also realised the rest of the world is just going to bury its heads in the sand.
How can China combat global warming most efficiently? By dumping huge numbers of solar panels (and support equipment) onto the market at cost or below cost.
They don’t need to persuade foreign politicians, they just need to let the people under them attack the problem.
It’s simultaneously a very capitalistic, and communistic solution. Which seems to fit China’s mentality.
This comes down to China not having enough oil, and thus not enough energy. Their domestic oil is only a drop in the buckef of what they need. So they go ham on everything else, demand side and supply side. To lower demand they build subways and trains like crazy. To increase energy supply they build hydro, nuclear, and now solar. Solar is now cheap because they had to focus on it.
They also seemed to realise they can make far more panels than they can deploy. It doesn’t matter where the oil is displaced, so long as it goes down, so will prices.
It’s now a profitable export that the world really needs. But there’s no grand plan, it’s just that China needed a way out of their own energy constraint.
Is Australia making solar panels or buying from China?
Australia is actually still making solar panels, quite good ones actually
(nowhere near as cheap as China, but less transport costs…)
https://tindosolar.com.au/our-product/tindo-panels/
Everyone is buying from China. Nobody has the resources and cheap enough labour and fiscal policies that control labour wages and export costs to keep the panels as cheap as what China can make. It’s their century now.
Thing is, does it matter? Once they’re made they’ll be used for the next 20 years, it’s not like the stock needs constant replenishment because it can be used precisely once like LNG.
I’ve got a pet conspiracy theory.
China is worried about global warming. They realised there was only so much they could do themselves. They also realised the rest of the world is just going to bury its heads in the sand.
How can China combat global warming most efficiently? By dumping huge numbers of solar panels (and support equipment) onto the market at cost or below cost.
They don’t need to persuade foreign politicians, they just need to let the people under them attack the problem.
It’s simultaneously a very capitalistic, and communistic solution. Which seems to fit China’s mentality.
This comes down to China not having enough oil, and thus not enough energy. Their domestic oil is only a drop in the buckef of what they need. So they go ham on everything else, demand side and supply side. To lower demand they build subways and trains like crazy. To increase energy supply they build hydro, nuclear, and now solar. Solar is now cheap because they had to focus on it.
Fully agreed.
They also seemed to realise they can make far more panels than they can deploy. It doesn’t matter where the oil is displaced, so long as it goes down, so will prices.
It’s now a profitable export that the world really needs. But there’s no grand plan, it’s just that China needed a way out of their own energy constraint.
While China is cheap that doesn’t preclude other countries from doing things.