In his September 1 New York Times article Keith Bradsher brings to light the current state of affairs for solar panel manufacturing in the US. If this article makes you shudder you’re not alone. There are many, many of us including yours truly who are active in the renewable energy market. Like many of you my interest stems from both a business and moral/environmental imperative.
The installation of solar projects in markets like the US and Germany will continue. But with the fall of our own Deven’s based Evergreen Solar and the New York based SpectraWatt a greater question comes to light yet again. What product can’t be made cheaper or faster in China? Are we playing ball on a level playing field? Most important is the question of where is balance met between playing in a world market and protecting domestic interests?
If Warren Buffet’s recent interest in railroad rights are any indication, we’ll at the very least be shipping a lot more product across the nation via rail when fuel costs to ship overseas and across the continent get worse; the only guarantee is that petroleum will get more expensive. How many jobs and what kind of jobs will be created has yet to be answered. Who will have any money to buy all that product is another good question.
Is there not any product the US can bet on that won’t be built faster and cheaper overseas? Is there not a product nobody else is interested in? After a quick search I found no evidence that better earthworms are being imported into the US from abroad. However, due to environmental concerns both here and in Canada international earthworm commerce over state and national borders is strictly regulated. Thank God.
How about something so specialized as the manufacture of vintage farm implements. Surely our brethren in rural Mennonite and other amish communities must rely on domestic production of metal implements using 18th or 19th century designs and methods ? As it turns out, much of this specialized production is being done in India. I do believe that those lovely straw hats are still being made right here in the US of A.
We do require that any product wearing the ‘made in the USA’ label be made domestically. We just don’t have much to hang that label on. Of course there’s always the risk that products imported into the US are being stamped or stuck with a label. Rumor has it the labels are sourced out to a supplier in central China.
Back to solar panel manufacturing. Whose to blame for yet another opportunity gone west of the pacific? Is there a system in place, a juggernaut of processes that will inevitably continue to sap the strength of opportunity state-side? Should we focus our attention on continuous innovation and give up on domestic manufacturing?
Confused about what to worry about? I sure am.
I honestly don’t know the answers. With the question of how commercial and residential solar installation will be funded after January 1 it’s become a challenge to know where to focus one’s efforts; and this is just one of a host of industries in transition right now.
Is this an article about our relationship with China? About the end of American dominance in manufacturing? Is it about why solar electric is important to our energy future? Am I asking the right questions? Is there a reason for my rambling? Is this going to end?