But China’s solar panel domestic industry is in upheaval. Wholesale prices plummeted by almost half in 2023 and have fallen another 25 per cent in 2024. Chinese manufacturers are competing for customers by cutting prices far below their costs, and still keep building more factories.
Electrification of everything via solar and wind eliminates vulnerability to disruption of fossil fuel supply for vehicles, heating & cooling, industry and aviation. If shipments of solar panels from China were halted because of trade disruption, war or pandemic then a slowly unfolding shortage of energy could result.
The goal of competing against low-cost Chinese solar panels might soon clash with the long-term climate targets introduced by the bloc, which will require a massive deployment of renewable systems to completely do away with fossil fuels.
Wholesale prices plummeted by almost half in 2023 and have fallen another 25 per cent in 2024. Chinese manufacturers are competing for customers by cutting prices far below their costs, and still keep building more factories. The price slashing has taken a severe toll on China’s solar companies.
Cheap Chinese solar panels are flooding the EU market and threatening the viability of homegrown companies. Europe's solar industry warns it faces an "existential threat" and that unless action is taken soon, it could collapse in a matter of months.
“China really wanted the solar industry,” says Hemlock’s former president, Beachy. “We gave that away as a country.” It’s a tragic failure of vision and ambition. In Detroit a century ago, US automobile entrepreneurs created an industry that irrevocably transformed cities, countries and economies.