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ACtually no , even with the export of primary goods that go into the manufactue of renewables like solar the price differential still favours China. A recent ex
by rzerowan 1mo ago
ACtually no , even with the export of primary goods that go into the manufactue of renewables like solar the price differential still favours China. A recent example is the boom of local solar manufacture in India whil relies on solar modules imported from china.The assembled panes are still 2X the price of a similar fullly aseembled one from China.
And not due too subsidies of labour - a lot of the value chain is highly automated and densely colocated diffrerent from other industrail setups where complimentary industries are geographically separeted which increase final costt by adding unreliable transport and delays into the mix.
So at scale and with high volume will continue to be the dominated by China , wear and tear even with renewables will continue to favour the first mover as tech evolves over time.The solar modules/batteries of 10-15 years ago are not the same effficency as those of today.
- yorwba 1mo agoChina indeed makes very cheap solar panels, inverters and batteries, but that just means that they take up a smaller share of the cost of a complete installation, which also includes labor and additional hardware for the mounting system. So solar panels doubling in price won't double the cost of new solar capacity, let alone the cost of electricity from existing installations. That reduces the political leverage a lot compared to oil, where a supply disruption affects prices on fairly short time scales.
- rzerowan 1mo agoYep exactly , also they are perfectly content to keep selling at the razor thin margins for commodities rather than attach political costs.Unless and only when their red lines are touch see Lithuania(hosting a Taiwan quasi consulate) and recently Panama(after rescinding the port concessions and confisicating the operations).
- samrus 1mo agoIm sure theirs still market dominance to be had. But it wont be at the level that the US has with oil. This isnt just market dominance, its complete economic dominance. The US can controll all money because oil is sold in dollars. That wont be true for solar panels, simply because a country couldnt afford to go a week without oil imports, but a country could go years without solar panel imports, given how existing panels will still work and new panels can be manufactored domestically if needed (even if they are expensive). You cant jist manufactor oil, you meed to buy it