this post was submitted on 28 Jun 2024
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Beijing intervenes in China’s solar industry as overcapacity dries up profit in the country's domestic market (www.semafor.com)
submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by [email protected] to c/technology
14 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 
  • China’s energy regulator said it will limit “low-end” solar panel manufacturing after industry leaders called for more government intervention earlier this month. The move is an acknowledgement by Beijing that solar panel overcapacity is a problem, one that has pushed Chinese solar firms into a price war and shriveled returns.
  • The competition in China’s solar power industry is “indeed very fierce,” an official at the National Energy Administration (NEA) said at a press conference Thursday.
  • A price war on solar panels in China has meant that big firms have rapidly lost profit while small firms risk bankruptcy.
  • Historically, the industry has been propped up by city governments, which build solar panel factories to lease or sell to private firms. But while some local authorities have expressed willingness to continue to keep solar firms afloat, “that support may dry up as the provinces are themselves swimming in debt, largely stemming from the country’s property crisis, and solar has to compete for their support with other green tech sectors, like electric vehicles, that are also struggling with overcapacity.
  • Chinese officials want homeowners to install solar panels to combat overcapacity, but China’s grid is still not able to accommodate fluctuating solar energy levels.
  • One solution may be virtual power plants: smaller-scale grids that rely on local renewable energy infrastructure and incentivize homeowners to use that energy during peak times with cash payments. But beyond building a new grid meant to handle renewable energy, China also needs “improved coordination” from Beijing to enable solar-heavy provinces to trade energy with solar-weak provinces.
  • China’s energy regulator is also pushing for more spot trading — where prices will fluctuate with supply and demand — rather than fixed rates, encouraging customers to use energy during low-demand periods.
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[–] [email protected] 28 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Services turning a profit seems very capitalist for a communist country.

Why not instead think of all the great things that could be achieved with so much clean, low cost energy.

[–] TheGrandNagus 22 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

China isn't a communist country and hasn't been for a long time. Theyre about as communist as the Democratic People's Republic of [North] Korea is democratic.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

That's fine, but someone has to pay for it.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago

Communism is great. You can spaff as much money up the wall as you want. Doesn't matter, anything you want can be done.

Then you wonder why there is no food in the supermarkets.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Seeing as China still burns fucking coal, I don't see how there can be a problem.

[–] Badeendje 7 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

The systems need to be installed too.

[–] FenrirIII 1 points 4 months ago

I think we just solved Anerica's immigration problems.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago (2 children)

The simple solution sounds like it should be shipping more panels to the rest of the world?

Solar panels are still excessively expensive here in Canada

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Same as EVs, it will be deemed as too competitive and tarifs will make those too expensive for poor people because fuck poor people.

[–] CosmoNova 1 points 4 months ago

Other countries already struggle to find use for the masses of panels china has been shipping in the last couple of months. They need to be approved, bought and installed first and there simply isn‘t enough personnel for that. There are already more panels sitting in EU ports than countries could realistically install in a year.

[–] jamyang 6 points 4 months ago

Reminds me of that cartoon on Robespierre: Robespierre, after guillotining everyone, proceeds to guillotine the last man in France: himself.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

If you have been following the Chinese solar industry, you would be aware that solar manufacturers from China, such as Suntec etc have gone bankrupt over the past decade or more. China's approach of allowing underperforming solar companies to go bankrupt is one of the reasons why their solar industry is so formidable.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

Pretty sure every politician in usa buys stock in the first shitty company and then subsidizes it until it becomes a permanent fixture.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

The other day I saw 500W+ panels for under 100€ at a local building and DIY big box store, and Inverters 5Kw ( I think) for around 1000€. Battery prices haven't dropped much, so installation and batteries are the major cost here.