beowulf 1 #1 April 3, 2012 http://www.zerohedge.com/news/worlds-largest-solar-plant-21-billion-energy-department-loan-guarantee-files-bankruptcy Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
airdvr 197 #2 April 3, 2012 Just when you think it couldn't get worse...Please don't dent the planet. Destinations by Roxanne Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kelpdiver 2 #3 April 3, 2012 US companies will never be able to manufacturer solar panels similar to those in China, at a lower cost. The obvious difference in labor rates dominate. These companies will either need to make some huge leap (and a proprietary one), or they're going to have to sell for more, or be subsidized. We already know (or Commerce department has concluded) that China subsidized their factories even with their natural advantages. They further concluded that China is actually dumping, not just subsidizing. So of course it's going to be hard for a private US company to win. The alternative of just letting them all go away and relying on China has obvious downsides. We've seeing it acutely in rare earth metals, which China is hoarding at this point. We'll spend the next few years reopening our own in Western nations at which point we can expect them to dump on the market again in an effort to bankrupt these companies. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jgoose71 0 #4 April 3, 2012 To bad Herman Cain was driven out of the race. His plan was what the country needed to make things like solar panels more competitive. Taxing incoming goods from China at 9% instead of 1.5% and lowering the corporate tax rate to 9% instead of the current 40% really would have lowered the overall costs of producing solar panels. There are people that say that such measures would only make the rich, richer, but in a case like this, maybe it would have kept them in business."There is an art, it says, or, rather, a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss." Life, the Universe, and Everything Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites