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Chinese Manufacturing May Make Solar Cheaper Than Ever
Saturday, July 24th 2010 12:00 PM
By GetSolar Staff.
 Bloomberg published an analysis of the solar industry on Friday, looking at the complex intersection of politics, business and environmentalism that characterizes the field. The biggest solar facility in the U.S., it points out, is a New Jersey solar installation at Rutgers University's Livingston campus.
All of the 7,600 panels, though, were sourced from Yingli Green Energy (NYSE: YGE), which will be familiar to viewers of the World Cup thanks to the company’s massive advertising presence there.
"It’s all about economics," Al Buckman of SunDurance Energy, a New Jersey solar installer, told Bloomberg News. Buckman is the CEO of SunDurance and chose Yingli because of its competitive prices.
Large-scale Chinese manufacturing, Bloomberg suggests, is bringing about a revolution in the manufacturing of solar arrays and panels. Just as formerly luxury devices like flat-screen TVs and laptops [extra space] have now become widespread, solar panels could end up becoming commonplace thanks to economies of scale delivered by Chinese manufacturers.
Those factories shipped 3,300 megawatts of solar panel capacity to the U.S. last year, for total sales of $6.6 billion. The low prices and enormous volume may squeeze some producers, but the consumer ends up benefiting as it is cheaper than ever to install solar panels on homes.
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