Give solar the same subsidies as coal and we can make billions of panels, no problem. The reason for the market shift away from US manufacturing is a lack of support in policy and infrastructure. US policymakers are still too entrenched in coal and oil.
We’ve had solar plants survive for years here. The reasons they eventually shut down are not internal.
Wife and I are actively saving for solar for the house. Incredibly steep entry cost but not having to worry about an electric bill in the increasingly hot summers is going to be worth it.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
For more than two decades, workers at a factory in Perrysburg, Ohio, near Toledo, have been making something that other businesses stopped producing in the United States long ago: solar panels.
Mr. Biden and Democrats in Congress last year authorized hundreds of billions of dollars in federal incentives for manufacturing solar panels, wind turbines, batteries, electric cars and semiconductors.
Chinese manufacturers enjoy lower labor costs, economies of scale and incentives from a government eager to control industries critical to fighting climate change.
Mr. Widmar, 58, who grew up in a working-class family in South Bend, Ind., about two and a half hours from Perrysburg, said he was motived by a desire to create U.S. jobs and extend America’s lead in technology.
Mr. Widmar said the Inflation Reduction Act, Mr. Biden’s signature climate law, set the stage for a growing domestic solar manufacturing industry.
One of First Solar’s advantages, Mr. Widmar said, is that it is not as exposed to the use of forced labor, which human rights groups and U.S. government officials say is common in China’s western Xinjiang region.
The original article contains 1,359 words, the summary contains 180 words. Saved 87%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
We can make anything, but are we willing to pay for it.
I think their argument is that they’ll be cost-competitive.