Germany's solar panel industry, once a leader, is getting squeezed
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Re: Germany's solar panel industry, once a leader, is getting squeezed
#2I still don't see this as being a valid reason for disavantaging the planet. Like they did in the EU when the Belgiam politicial managed to get a tax imposed to make solar panels more expensive from Chain. One would expect Germanies business to be thriving now.
But to make solar panels artificially more expensive for any reason at all is extreme folly for the planet if anyone cares about that.
Re: Germany's solar panel industry, once a leader, is getting squeezed
#3I still don't see this as being a valid reason for disavantaging the planet. Like they did in the EU when the Belgiam politicial managed to get a tax imposed to make solar panels more expensive from Chain. One would expect Germanies business to be thriving now. But to make solar panels artificially more expensive for any reason at all is extreme folly for the planet if anyone cares about that.
It's rather silly if you ask me how protectionist most capitalist market pro countries are. Any solar panel worth buying at the moment comes from China. Yet we have insane tariffs on imported them into Canada or USA. But if you go down to Joe's Solar and ask for a quote, you're getting a quote on imported Chinese solar panels.
So all they are doing is artificially raising the price of every single solar installation while offering a rebate, the local manufacturer if they even exist does not make panels that produce enough energy to compete and still cost more then importing at 150% tariff.
Re: Germany's solar panel industry, once a leader, is getting squeezed
#4I still don't see this as being a valid reason for disavantaging the planet. Like they did in the EU when the Belgiam politicial managed to get a tax imposed to make solar panels more expensive from Chain. One would expect Germanies business to be thriving now. But to make solar panels artificially more expensive for any reason at all is extreme folly for the planet if anyone cares about that.
Indeed!
And the "better for the planet if sourced locally" would be easier to handle if there was a carbon tax to account for it in the first place, and letting the market handle it.
Re: Germany's solar panel industry, once a leader, is getting squeezed
#5Germany's energy production is below 1970s levels and their per capita figures are in a grim state [0]. As with much of Europe, it makes for worrying reading. It would be extremely impressive if they can remain a manufacturing leader through this. If there is less energy, someone will have to use less energy. As far as I can tell that means either compromising living standards or giving up some heavy manufacturing. I'm assuming that this is an expression of that dynamic unless it is proven otherwise.
German politicians should have taken their energy security more seriously back in the 2010s. My main hope is maybe the rest of us can learn from these energy starved European powers and do things differently.
Re: Germany's solar panel industry, once a leader, is getting squeezed
#6I still don't see this as being a valid reason for disavantaging the planet. Like they did in the EU when the Belgiam politicial managed to get a tax imposed to make solar panels more expensive from Chain. One would expect Germanies business to be thriving now. But to make solar panels artificially more expensive for any reason at all is extreme folly for the planet if anyone cares about that.
But you’re not comparing the same products, for example how much more should one pay to have a product not produced with slave labour?
Re: Germany's solar panel industry, once a leader, is getting squeezed
#7I still don't see this as being a valid reason for disavantaging the planet. Like they did in the EU when the Belgiam politicial managed to get a tax imposed to make solar panels more expensive from Chain. One would expect Germanies business to be thriving now. But to make solar panels artificially more expensive for any reason at all is extreme folly for the planet if anyone cares about that.
It's rather silly if you ask me how protectionist most capitalist market pro countries are. Any solar panel worth buying at the moment comes from China. Yet we have insane tariffs on imported them into Canada or USA. But if you go down to Joe's Solar and ask for a quote, you're getting a quote on imported Chinese solar panels. So all they are doing is artificially raising the price of every single solar installation…
Protectionism isn't generally regarded as pro-market. Command and control economies where states subsidize auto industries, put up grants for chip fabs or nationalize entire sectors are vaguely oriented towards market pricing at best.
Re: Germany's solar panel industry, once a leader, is getting squeezed
#8This is a classic story where Germans are amazing at doing the R&D on something but are squeezed so hard while scaling, that technologically less sophisticated competitors take over and dominate the market.
Imagine what German engineering could push into the market if it weren't for this self-flagellation. Maybe it is time again for German engineers and scientists to emigrate to greener pastures.
Re: Germany's solar panel industry, once a leader, is getting squeezed
#9Maybe they are switching to other renewable sources, like windmills...
Re: Germany's solar panel industry, once a leader, is getting squeezed
#10Germany's energy production is below 1970s levels and their per capita figures are in a grim state [0]. As with much of Europe, it makes for worrying reading. It would be extremely impressive if they can remain a manufacturing leader through this. If there is less energy, someone will have to use less energy. As far as I can tell that means either compromising living standards or giving up some heavy manufacturing. I…
Add a few other countries to the list and see how their curves look almost the same as Germany's...
(The situation is not much different on the other graphs)
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/per-capita-energy-use?tab...
Edit: Here's the same (semi-randomly chosen) set of countries, applied to the same article (see parents [0]-link) in full:
https://ourworldindata.org/energy/country/germany?country=DE...