Looks like another solar power company is shuttering the solar power business as Bosch gave up earlier today. The 2.6 billion dollar investment just didn't pay off, especially since the industry is being flooded by lower cost chinese components. This is not very surprising as the overall solar panel industry is one with small incremental efficiency gains, no enormous technological leaps, just consistent, small improvements in processes. This model leads to locations with cheap manufacturing and lower labor costs eventually overtaking the market.
The real take here is that China is going to be the primary manufacturer of solar panels on a cost basis until someone else can make a technological breakthrough. The question to ask though...is this a bad thing? Yeah solar panels are a good 'green' field, but at the root its a messy, pollution oriented manufacturing business, not a paragon of green energy. I say let China make the panels, we'll buy them and work on research for better systems..
But that's my 2 cents
The real take here is that China is going to be the primary manufacturer of solar panels on a cost basis until someone else can make a technological breakthrough. The question to ask though...is this a bad thing? Yeah solar panels are a good 'green' field, but at the root its a messy, pollution oriented manufacturing business, not a paragon of green energy. I say let China make the panels, we'll buy them and work on research for better systems..
But that's my 2 cents
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