Navigant Managing Director and Energy Practice Leader, Bill Dickenson, discusses the future of renewable energy with the increasingly tense relations between the U.S. and China in NationalJournal.com’s Energy & Environment blog:
The New York Times recently reported that the over-investment by Chinese solar panel manufacturers has placed not only the future of the Chinese manufacturers at risk, but also the future of the rest of the world’s manufacturers. Given that capacity is so over-built, market participants cannot realistically operate manufacturing facilities near the required levels of production to enjoy any sort of economies of scale. Since 2009, demand for solar panels has increased almost threefold. Typically, this would be considered a good thing – except that manufacturing capacity has increased by close to five times during the same time frame. This supply and demand imbalance has pushed prices so low that it is reportedly causing the Chinese to lose one dollar for every three dollars they make in sales. Clearly, this is not a sustainable condition.
So how does this affect the U.S. manufacturers? Click here to read the complete article.