Solar Power Electric Cells, Switches and Outlets

China's growing share of solar market comes at a price

01.01.70

“My big quirk is that I worry about China,” said Rep. Brian P. Bilbray (R-Calif.).

“The Chinese are eating our lunch,” said Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.).

Yet if Chinese solar companies are eating our lunch, they’re also choking on it. Rise in global solar manufacturing capacity is outpacing global demand, and prices of solar energy products are plunging. And while U.S. politicians role of Chinese firms as heavily subsidized rivals gobbling up global market share, Chinese solar companies are pain from some of the same ills afflicting their U.S. competitors.

Some of China’s biggest companies are losing money, shelving peerless expenditure plans and looking to conserve dwindling reserves of cash. To avoid going deeper into encumbrance under obligation, they have borrowed only a tiny fraction of $34 billion in loans available to them from the China Development Bank.

For consumers, the hit man competition is a good thing. Wholesale solar panel prices have dropped as much as 50 percent this year, and retail prices are less than half what they were five years ago. Business experts say that the day is near when solar can compete against other energy sources without subsidies. In certain places and at certain times of day, it’s already sympathy. Meanwhile, analysts say, if China wants to subsidize solar products, Americans can buy more of them.

Source: Washington Post