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www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,16031596,00.html
Chinese exports crushing German solar industry
Tough competition, price pressure and dwindling subsidies - these are the woes facing the German solar technology production sector. While the outlook seems grim, some believe that things will improve.
The golden era of the German solar energy sector is over. At its peak, Germany had a 20-percent share of the global solar energy market, but now the figure stands at just 6 percent. After a rapid decline in recent months, more job cuts are expected to hit the industry.
"It has never been this bad," said German Solar Industry Association head Carsten Körnig at the opening of Intersolar, the world's largest solar energy trade fair, in Munich. And this despite the fact that last year, more photovoltaic systems were installed around the world than ever before.
Price dumping blamed
The main reason for these losses is a dramatic price decline.
"Despite growing demand in recent years, production capacity has increased even faster, and this of course leads to huge price pressure," Körnig told DW.
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Re: Chinese protectionism destroyed America's Solyndra Solar, and now it's destroying GERMANY's solar industry, too.
Sat, August 4, 2012 - 10:47 PM.....competition.....just like the Olympics !
Phelps take a lot a gold. What the Chinese or the Germans can say about ? -
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Re: Chinese protectionism destroyed America's Solyndra Solar, and now it's destroying GERMANY's solar industry, too.
Sat, August 4, 2012 - 11:49 PMI'm a little disgusted at Obama's alternative energy policies. Not that any other president can claim they did any better, but at least they didn't give so much convincing lip service, have such a realistic opportunity, and then ignore it so quickly and be so incompetent about it. In the last 5 or so years we have seen realistic advances that no other president has seen when it comes to alternative energy and particularly solar. But Obama's answer is just to throw money at the issue instead of having a strategy. He hires Steven Chu, who is a scientist, not a politician and things get predictably fucked up. What we should have done is secure the earth minerals that are needed in the process. Now China has a near monopoly on all of that. Fisker Automotive is the next one he fucked up after Solyndra. -
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Re: Chinese protectionism destroyed America's Solyndra Solar, and now it's destroying GERMANY's solar industry, too.
Sun, August 5, 2012 - 11:12 AMthe government, including Obama, show a total disrespect to entrepreneurs (I am on).
The businessman just move the business somewhere else.
People lose the jobs, country get poor and everybody's looking for Cheap products
China is prospering. The US government loan money from China and have to agree the loan conditions
What's so hard to understand? -
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Re: Chinese protectionism destroyed America's Solyndra Solar, and now it's destroying GERMANY's solar industry, too.
Sun, August 5, 2012 - 4:03 PMIf China can give the world cheap, effective, working solar powered technology, please let them. When Reagan was elected, one of his first acts was to remove the solar panels Jimmy Carter had installed on the White House roof. Our politics failed us, again. How could it be bad that China pulls a Sputnik event with solar technology to shame the USA out of solar darkness? -
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Re: Chinese protectionism destroyed America's Solyndra Solar, and now it's destroying GERMANY's solar industry, too.
Sun, August 5, 2012 - 9:04 PMThe Global corporations and relatively cheap Chinese labor allow the Chinese to have the upper hand in manufacturing certain consumer goods.
Generally, entrepreneurs do not do well with stiff government regulation and entrepreneurs seldom have the time or resources to lobby the politicians for special favors, so the BIG guys get bigger and usually end up influencing industrial policy. -
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Re: Chinese protectionism destroyed America's Solyndra Solar, and now it's destroying GERMANY's solar industry, too.
Sun, August 5, 2012 - 11:35 PM''Generally, entrepreneurs do not do well with stiff government regulation ''
Really ? how the people move them business there ?
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Re: Chinese protectionism destroyed America's Solyndra Solar, and now it's destroying GERMANY's solar industry, too.
Mon, August 6, 2012 - 12:43 AMI think the main point is all the U.S. jobs that could have been created in Alt Energy that weren't because of plain incompetence or non-interest.
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Re: Chinese protectionism destroyed America's Solyndra Solar, and now it's destroying GERMANY's solar industry, too.
Tue, August 7, 2012 - 6:43 AMI don't know about solar. I think it's way too early to be trying to make it a valid energy solution. If it takes the monetary might of the Chinese government to keep theirs afloat then what good is it? A billion Chinese slaving and struggling away so that a few Chinese Solar companies can sell inefficient solar panels around the world?
And then we tried to mimic the Chinese?
I really believe that solar is a long way off. We don't have efficient energy conversion yet and no one talks about solar the same way they talk about other manufactured things. They can get giddy talking about carbon footprints of things like cars but you don't ever hear them talking about the over all costs and other issues related to these so called green things.
What's the carbon footprint of a solar panel?
Anybody know? Some say it's 20 times less than coal. Which number probably assumes the most optimal set of facts for the panel and the worse for coal - an inaccurate and unfair number to be sure. Of course that means very little when you have to replace the panel every three years. The rosy speculation of output and life cycle by people insisting they have a scientific basis for their claims is all based on using them in the Mediterranean where there are no conflicting extremes of weather.
Anyway I'm not saying that solar is not a good idea I am saying it's still a little early to be trying to go commercial.
I wouldn't pay a dime for solar until the costs come way down and the life-cycle goes way up and the efficiency becomes realistic. Maybe in 10 or 50 years?
