Washington, D.C. -- So one of the Department of Energy's big clean-energy bets -- Solyndra -- didn't make it. But this city is wrangling over which wrong conclusion to draw. The Tea Party Republicans, of course, see this as proof that America can't expect to compete -- and that clean-tech advocates and environmentalists were silly for thinking we could. The Republican National Committee turned Solyndra's bankruptcy into an example of the one modern innovation for which America's preeminence is unchallenged -- the campaign attack ad.
Mainstream media, like the New York Times, pointed out that Solyndra failed not because it wasn't able to make electricity -- this was no "cold fusion" chimera -- but because cheap Chinese solar panels that use more conventional technologies beat its price point. How did the Chinese get so cheap? Not through innovation -- they lag behind the U.S. in solar tech. Not through labor costs, which are insignificant in making solar panels. No, the Chinese got cheaper loans, faster permits and more support from their government for their exports.
The Tea Party storyline ignores the fact that the global solar market is expanding fast -- and global solar costs are dropping equally fast. Solar really is the 21st-century equivalent of the previous century's automotive industry -- yet the Tea Party is willing to let America be left behind with coal and oil.
But the other D.C. solar storyline is equally lame. It's the "we tried to go too fast story," and the most spectacular example was Friday's Obama administration decision to postpone issuing new air-quality standards for ozone. But the ozone standard that is being "postponed" wouldn't have required a single factory to buy a single piece of new equipment for years. What it would have done is signal to markets that America is ready to move from being the global laggard to the middle of the pack in implementing innovation. But that was way too fast for today's Washington -- on either side of the aisle.
So what should our nation's leaders do? If China is gaining control of the solar panel space with cheap credit, why not set up a national clean-energy bank that can make loans cheaply? Not every 1930s rural electrification co-op made it, but rural America got electricity -- and America led the world. (Disclosure -- My father worked for the Rural Electrification Administration his whole life -- so I grew up hearing how FDR electrified rural America.) President Obama and the congressional Democrats have floated this idea -- but they've never gone to the mat for it. We'll probably hear about it again next week. But we won't make it happen until something changes.
And if it's outright subsidies that get Chinese solar panels into the U.S. (which evidence suggests is at least part of the story), then why not enforce our trade laws? (I know, law and order is so... Nineties.) But the reality is that solar power is not a failed or failing business -- it's the future. If the U.S. wants to be part of that future, then we need to make solar panels here in the USA, and we need to create the markets for panels with public policies like renewable-electricity standards and feed-in tariffs.
And if China is taking away market share, it is most definitely not evidence that we are doing too much or moving too fast. Nor does it mean that U.S. companies (as per the Tea Party) have no business innovating. It's simply proof that neither timid nor bought-and-sold politics will cut the mustard in the 21st century.
Don't weep for Solyndra. Weep for the American dream.
Follow Carl Pope on Twitter: www.twitter.com/CarlPope
Bradford Kane: Lessons From the Debt Ceiling Crisis: Bipartisanship in the Tea Party Era
White House-Backed Solar Solyndra Company Collapses - ABC News
Solyndra, Solar Firm Aided by Federal Loans, Shuts Doors ...
http://lenr-canr.org/acrobat/BarnhartBtechnology.pdf
That's the lesson we should take from this if we want a part of a manufacturing business - subsidize it and protect it with tariffs - the loans and fast permits were just icing on the cake!
THe Chinese have an interesting set of action items; they're aggresively buying rights to oil, cornering solar, urgently building coal pwr plants. Quite a consolidation of energy sources.
http://cleantechnica.com/2011/06/10/solar-power-graphs-to-make-you-smile/
Great chart of energy source amounts: http://cleantechnica.com/2011/08/23/solar-power-intro-3-key-solar-power-points-top-solar-power-news/
Solar energy payback 1-3 years:http://www.motherearthnews.com/energy-matters/dispelling-the-myths-of-solar-electricity-energy-payback.aspx
http://www.solar-photovoltaic.info/payback/siemens-solar-panels-energy-payback-time-is-one-to-three-years/
Wind 6 months energy payback: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/01/wind_turbine_lca.php
http://www.wind-works.org/articles/EnergyBalanceofWindTurbines.html 3 months
panels lasting longer and better than predicted http://solar.gwu.edu/Research/EnergyPolicy_Zweibel2010.pdf Great article about price of solar now 3$/W installed. last 100 years, 1-2 cents pwer KWH after the first 20 years and the loan is paid off.
50% of nukes default, that's significant.
Don't worry, Solar is already cheaper than nukes, clean coal, and oil wars or sands.
http://cleantechnica.com/2011/06/10/solar-power-graphs-to-make-you-smile/
Great chart of energy source amounts: http://cleantechnica.com/2011/08/23/solar-power-intro-3-key-solar-power-points-top-solar-power-news/
The U.S. should have figured out by now that it cannot hope to compete with China on price. It's not just the cheap labor. It's the fact that China is flush with cash, its economy is growing at 9% per year, and they've got plenty of money to throw at high-risk schemes.
We don't.
We're broke.
And our labor costs will always be higher than theirs.
We cannot compete with China on price.
What's wrong with just buying cheap solar panels from China, if they can make quality products cheaply?
You left out several important elements in your recommendation to the President and Congress. If a Clean Tech National Lending Program is going to be successful, it needs to include all levels of government to have access to the program as well as all business and residential property owners. It should including money for LED lighting, geothermal heating and cooling, energy star appliances, vampire energy eliminating devices, thermal windows, insulation, and weatherization. The alternative energy investment tax credit should be converted to an energy efficiency investment tax credit to help accelerate the payback. All energy savings should be used to repay the loans and handled by the utilities who have the means to collect utility bills and track the saving through historical use.
In addition, it does little good for energy efficiency to have the investor owned utility model that robs people of their energy efficiency gains through rate increase as a result of a utility not earning its guaranteed rate of return. Therefore, the Investor Owned Utility model should be replaced with a modified version of the California ISO. The ISO would be required to pay market rates for excess capacity sold into the grid by all business, residential and government producers of clean energy.
Last, once a property has undergone a complete energy efficiency retrofit, it would then become eligible for the alternative energy investment tax credit. To provide this credit before a retrofit defeats the purpose of wise energy use.
The Chinese are pursuing our innovations, Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors (LFTR)s.
The Molten Salt Reactor technology, Dr Alvin Weinberg, developed at Oak Ridge from 1954 to
1973, When he was dismissed as Director for being overly concerned with safety issues of the
Light Water Reactor (LWR)[the type of reactors at TMI, Chernobyl, and Fukushima]. Dr Weinberg
the patent holder of the LWR describe the decision to use LWR for civilian electric power
generation as a "FAUSTIAN BARGAIN".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOoBTufkEog
In an interview with CAS Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics
Xu Hongjie
Said as follows; {my slant on the google translation}”
As the world's next generation of nuclear reactors still under development, so our own research and development of thorium-based molten salt reactor{LFTR Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor}, may be all intellectual property rights. This will enable China to firmly grasp the lifeline of energy in their own hands.
Let the {word} "nuclear" no longer {be threatening}.
In the past, people always talk about {disastrous} "nuclear" {events} . Atomic bomb on Hiroshima, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant explosion, is like a lingering nightmare to stay in human history. But a new generation of nuclear power {LFTR} will be a green, {path to} peace {for all} mankind into a new era.”
{The Thorium Age}
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=zh-CN&tl=en&u=http://whb.news365.com.cn/yw/201101/t20110126_2944856.htm
LFTRs are beyond green because they are cheaper than dirty coal now.
LFTRs can ZERO carbon and MERCURY by 2058 Solar can not
LFTRs consume nuclear waste Solar can not
http://www.thoriumenergyalliance.com/
Low interest loans for the corporate entities may be necessary too, but we the people would at least get tangible and useful cost saving products instead of just aid to our economy and competitiveness with cash on delivery purchases. Having a buyer lined up is quite a motivator for getting to actual production and business viability too.
I get that if solar companies win, we all win. It just seems the direct benefits are being skewed to those taking risks with our money. Loans being repaid is not the same.