Solar Power Is Booming — Why Do We Want To Kill It? 415
TaeKwonDood writes with a followup to the news we discussed over the weekend about tariffs being places on Chinese solar panels. He writes,
"According to Forbes, 'Solar power is booming. Imports from China were a tepid $21 million in 2005, but in 2011 installations totaled nearly $2.7 billion. That's a huge win. And just as advocates for solar power had hoped, a larger market drove down prices. Solar energy cost has declined by two-thirds in the last four years, meaning it will soon start to close in on fossil fuels.' There's just one problem: now the government wants to kill it. The article continues, 'As the market was flooded by both silicon (from silicon producers) and thin-film panels (by Chinese manufacturers), the price for thin-film panels came crashing down – along with Solyndra’s business model. ... Yet that isn’t the only instance of mismanagement. The whole clean energy program remains flawed, even at the consumer level. The people who are the most likely to be impacted by high energy prices, the poor, are the least likely to benefit from the solar rebate scheme because they lack the capital to pay for the installation.'"
Re:"We" are not trying to kill solar... (Score:2, Funny)
Solar is booming because of subsidies; poor people are being taxed in the West so that Chinese solar power manufacturers get rich.
Eliminate all subsidies and let the market sort itself out.
Re:Chinese Subsidies (Score:5, Funny)
From orbit. That's the only way to be sure.
Re:Chinese Subsidies (Score:2, Funny)
From Stark Industries [starkexpo2010.com], of course.
Re:CYA by the White House (Score:4, Funny)
Federal budget problems are like a leaky roof: "If it's raining, can't fix it. If it's not raining, it doesn't leak."