Solar Panel Industry in Collapse

[T1 Terry]

Did anybody see this report? http://http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20111209VL200.html It says 50% of china's solar panel production has been shut down because it can't pay back the start up loans. there is a glut of solar on the market at the moment, when that dies up the prices will skyrocket and all those that got in while it was cheap will be laughing. Once the price of solar goes up beyond the reach of most, so will the price for electricity.
I have been gradually building up the number of panels on my roof, didn't both with the B/S involved in getting rebates etc, feed it into a lithium battery pack and run more and more of the house from it via a big inverter. $1500 outlay on panels so far, $1,000 on the UPS style inverter charger, $4,000 so far on batteries so $6,500, our electricity bill halved, dropped by $275 per quarter, it will take 23 yrs at that rate but the predicted electricity price rise over the next 12mths means that $275 will really be closer to $400. Payback drops to 16 yrs.
All of that seemed unimportant last week, the power went off for 6hrs, but not at our house
In Aust they are gradually phasing in "smart meters", these allow different pricing for different load periods, 19.5c kW/h between 11pm and 5.30am, 25c kW/h between 5.30 am and 2pm and between 8.30pm and 11pm. 49.5c kW/h between 2.30pm and 8.30pm, when most household power is used. This also gives them the ability to load shed, if the demand gets so high their buying price for electricity starts cut into their profitability they can shut down non essential power like air con, water heating, pool pumps etc. This is supposed to be only used if the system goes into overload but any thinking person knows that will happen every time peak load becomes high.
I figure I’m investing in a stable future power supply, $$ may not be the only consideration.

T1 Terry

[senormechanico]

Originally Posted by T1 Terry

Did anybody see this report? http://http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20111209VL200.html

It says you have to be as subscriber.

[David M]

Everyone I know who has had a SmartMeter installed has had their electric bills rise. It sounds like it smart for the utility company to install them.

[T1 Terry]

Originally Posted by senormechanico

It says you have to be as subscriber.

this is the bit between the ads


Jackie Chang, DIGITIMES, Taipei [Friday 9 December 2011]

About 50% of the firms in China's solar industry have suspended production, according to the country's Guangzhou Daily.
The daily cited the solar energy division of CSG Holding as claiming that half of the solar firms have stopped production, 30% have halved their output and 20% are trying to maintain certain levels of production.
Digitimes Research's findings have indicated that only tier-one solar firms in China had capacity utilization rates over 80% in the first half of 2011 while tier-two and tier-three firms were already facing falling capacity utilizations rates.
Guangzhou Daily stated that oversupply and significant price drops are the reasons for the firms to shut down production.
The report also indicated that China firms have been facing increasing production costs following news on September 2011 that one of the large-size solar players had a chemical leak at one of its plants that polluted a nearby river. This means the other solar firms now face increasing costs to prevent such pollution while suffering from sharp price drops and low demand.

T1 Terry