Half of 2022 utility solar projects may be in trouble — report
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December 15, 2021 - 1:10pm
Critical Commentary
A recent report remarks that the cost of manufacturing solar panels has gone up 50% in the last year, threatening many proposed and planned solar projects around the world. The costs have gone up, to some degree, from the shipping bottlenecks emerging as economies recover from the initial slow-down at the outbreak of the pandemic. However, the most significant contributor to this increase is due to increased cost of the necessary materials.
The cost of polysilicon has surged. Some, including the Spokespeople for the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA, the solar industry's largest representative), have speculated this is due to the restrictions that followed from the discovery of Chinese manufacturing of the material through forced labor. According to the senior financial analyst of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), however, this does not seem to be the case. Instead, the price appears to be recovering from an unusual low point, reflecting the growth in demand. There are, however, real concerns that tariffs on solar imports proposed by the American Solar Manufacturers Against Chinese Circumvention (A-SMACC) will impact the global solar industry. SEIA calls the tariffs irresponsible, as they would increase the cost of solar panel production at a time that the industry needs to expand rapidly in order to meet specified climate goals. A-SMACC countered, saying that SEIA is protecting Chinese interests. SEIA responded by calling this attack unwarranted, xenophobic, and dangerous for the racist ideas and forms of socio-politics it represents.
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Anonymous, "Half of 2022 utility solar projects may be in trouble — report", contributed by , The Energy Rights Project, Platform for Experimental Collaborative Ethnography, last modified 15 December 2021, accessed 21 November 2024. https://energyrights.info/content/half-2022-utility-solar-projects-may-be-trouble-—-report
Critical Commentary
A recent report remarks that the cost of manufacturing solar panels has gone up 50% in the last year, threatening many proposed and planned solar projects around the world. The costs have gone up, to some degree, from the shipping bottlenecks emerging as economies recover from the initial slow-down at the outbreak of the pandemic. However, the most significant contributor to this increase is due to increased cost of the necessary materials.
The cost of polysilicon has surged. Some, including the Spokespeople for the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA, the solar industry's largest representative), have speculated this is due to the restrictions that followed from the discovery of Chinese manufacturing of the material through forced labor. According to the senior financial analyst of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), however, this does not seem to be the case. Instead, the price appears to be recovering from an unusual low point, reflecting the growth in demand. There are, however, real concerns that tariffs on solar imports proposed by the American Solar Manufacturers Against Chinese Circumvention (A-SMACC) will impact the global solar industry. SEIA calls the tariffs irresponsible, as they would increase the cost of solar panel production at a time that the industry needs to expand rapidly in order to meet specified climate goals. A-SMACC countered, saying that SEIA is protecting Chinese interests. SEIA responded by calling this attack unwarranted, xenophobic, and dangerous for the racist ideas and forms of socio-politics it represents.