Thoughts? Will this save US companies? Will this cause price increases?
U.S. may put emergency tariffs on solar imports
Collapse
X
-
U.S. may put emergency tariffs on solar imports
Thoughts? Will this save US companies? Will this cause price increases?
-
It will certainly raise the price of solar panels. It may help the few US companies that still build solar panels but my fear is that without competition they will just raise their prices because that is the American way. -
This will undoubtedly raise the price of solar in the US. I believe they are looking to impose tariffs in the range of $.40/Watt which would nearly double the current module prices. If this goes through, it will deal a huge blow to a rapidly expanding market.Comment
-
While I am looking forward to installing a system around 6k to 7k in a year or so I expect that it will be harder to justify one based on ROI.Comment
-
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-us...-idUSKBN18P1JL
Thoughts? Will this save US companies? Will this cause price increases?
The %age of total panels in use in N. America that are truly N. American made is quite small. That %age will be going up some, but will probably never be a large number. Panels are a commodity. N.America simply cannot compete on commodity goods, mostly because of lower wages and policies in the rest of the world. Deal with it.Comment
-
Simple prices will go up artificially and that will lower sales. The USA cannot compete with Chi-Coms. In the USA Wages, Corporate taxes, are to high, OSHA and EPA regulations are to strict. The USA has done everything they can possible do to run manufacturing off to another country. The beneficiaries are Chi-Coms, India and Mexico. That is one reason why Chump won, and Billiary and dems got thrown out of office.MSEE, PEComment
-
Simple prices will go up artificially and that will lower sales. The USA cannot compete with Chi-Coms. In the USA Wages, Corporate taxes, are to high, OSHA and EPA regulations are to strict. The USA has done everything they can possible do to run manufacturing off to another country. The beneficiaries are Chi-Coms, India and Mexico. That is one reason why Chump won, and Billiary and dems got thrown out of office.Comment
-
MSEE, PEComment
-
While other things add to the woes, I'd suggest that down at the bottom line it's about the fact that wages and bennie costs are much lower in other countries. If the U. S. is willing to become a 3d world country faster than the current headlong rush, it only needs to continue on the present course. The pendulum will begin to swing back once the U.S. educational system is completely useless.Comment
-
Actually in PV module manufacturing it is more about supply chain and economies of scale than wages. The process is very highly automated, so labor is really a small percentage of cost. The factories in Asia are much larger than the ones in the US, and the supply chains for the components are larger as well.
There is also the overhead of the factory and probably the lack of federal incentives for the US manufacturers as compared to a factory in Asia.
Comment
-
That happened 30 years ago. When you and I graduated from High School is equivalent to today's BS grad in college. Today a college grad needs to be MS or Phd to get ahead. USA public education system has failed big time, Unions and lower standards so idiots can graduate HS have everything to do with it. All a result of political correctness. A public HS diploma today is useless. A high percentage of HS grads today are illiterate and cannot do simple math or any critical thinking. They use to be called Dunces or Morons.2.2kw Suntech mono, Classic 200, NEW Trace SW4024Comment
-
Actually in PV module manufacturing it is more about supply chain and economies of scale than wages. The process is very highly automated, so labor is really a small percentage of cost. The factories in Asia are much larger than the ones in the US, and the supply chains for the components are larger as well.
I suppose labor intensive mfg. processes such as textiles or more one off type stuff like precision or specialized instrument mfg. might be better in the U.S. if we hadn't lost most of those skills, or, perhaps more accurately, spinelessly gave them up.
I appreciate the idea that gov. regs., etc. can add to costs, and certainly part of the reason why free markets do not necessarily imply level playing fields. The cost/benefit of those things being a different conversation (and perhaps moot, and being unanswerable except as opinion) for perhaps another time.
But, my cynical side makes me want to think that while those compliance costs do indeed exist, there's more than a bit of a red herring in using that justification for the often U.S. price disparity vs. a lot of the rest of the world, particularly for mass produced goods.Last edited by J.P.M.; 05-31-2017, 10:25 AM.Comment
-
That happened 30 years ago. When you and I graduated from High School is equivalent to today's BS grad in college. Today a college grad needs to be MS or Phd to get ahead. USA public education system has failed big time, Unions and lower standards so idiots can graduate HS have everything to do with it. All a result of political correctness. A public HS diploma today is useless. A high percentage of HS grads today are illiterate and cannot do simple math or any critical thinking. They use to be called Dunces or Morons.Comment
-
IMO The current generation depends too much on technology to do the basic things we were taught in grade school. If there is every a long power outage or cell phone system failure most young people would be lost and not be able to do any computations.Comment
-
When you go to a bowling alley and see people not being able to keep score using a pencil and paper you know that the ability to do simple math is now gone.
IMO The current generation depends too much on technology to do the basic things we were taught in grade school. If there is every a long power outage or cell phone system failure most young people would be lost and not be able to do any computations.
Like most everything else in life: Use it or lose it. Palm zombies are one rather obvious result. We're well on the way to becoming a nation of morons. Used to be there was math phobia. That's gone. Hard to fear what you don't know exists.Comment
Comment