China experienced a significant increase in solar product exports in 2023. It exported 56GW of solar wafers, 32GW of cells and 178GW of modules in the first 10 months of the year, up 90%, 72% and 34% year-on-year respectively, according to the China Photovoltaic Industry Association. However, due to falling costs, the export value of these solar products only increased by 3%.
The funniest quote in the article. China is outcompeting themselves so hard on price that they can almost double export products without affecting export value. That’s absurd.
Western institutions fundamentally misunderstand the clean energy revolution. It’s actually rather worrying, because it’s a large part of why Western estimates of China’s economic growth have been so far off.
What do you believe is so unique about China’s PV production that couldn’t/haven’t been reproduced by the rest of the world? I mean, other than the ability to undercut developed countries by ignoring externalities and the damage caused to the environment by the extremely polluting extraction and refining process…
Don’t get me wrong, I’m as happy as the next guy for more renewable, but here we are cheering for the kleptocrats.
It’s been entirely innovation-based cost reduction. This comment shows a lack of understanding of the Chinese PV industry and how it outcompeted everyone else.
In a year, it’s essentially dropped prices across the board by almost half.
What do you believe is so unique about China’s PV production that couldn’t/haven’t been reproduced by the rest of the world? I mean, other than the ability to undercut developed countries by ignoring externalities and the damage caused to the environment by the extremely polluting extraction and refining process…
The fuck are you talking about? The rest of the world definitely does reproduce that.
care to elaborate? The rest of the world definitely has higher environmental standards (and, more importantly, enforcement of them) than China. And that is a significant driver of the cost. You should read about the history of the PV industry in Germany before throwing insults.
The rest of the world definitely has higher environmental standards (and, more importantly, enforcement of them) than China.
Source: your ass
What’s the deal with you, exactly? Are you denying the many substantiated academic reports of environmental damage caused by rare-earth extraction and refining as part of some anti-China conspiracy? Just so I know if it’s worthy of my time to engage at all.
Your claims were that no other country other than China “undercut[s] developed countries by ignoring externalities and the damage caused to the environment by the extremely polluting extraction and refining process” and “The rest of the world definitely has higher environmental standards than China.”
That you’re now pretending your claim was just that rare earth mining causes any environmental damage at all makes it pretty fucking obvious that you’re being wilfully dishonest.
My claim is that a large part of the cost effectiveness of importing from China is the outsourced cost of pollution, which will remain minimal (and competitively unfair) while China keeps turning a bind eye on it (which wouldn’t fly in non-authoritarian countries with freedom of information). And you haven’t disproved nor addressed that, only been fussing around arguing semantics.
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Are you sure it’s the western estimates that were off? I suspect the CCP has politicized their economic metrics publications. Their recent changes to the youth unemployment numbers being the most recent indicator of this.
You mean like how the USA include thousands of dollars of fake rent in GDP numbers for every single homeowner in America under the justification that if they didn’t own their homes they’d be paying rent? Like that kind of politicization of economic metrics publications? Or maybe you mean how the USA only counts someone as unemployed if they are pursuing their unemployment insurance but also every state has a financial incentive to deny as many unemployment claims as possible? Or maybe it’s the constant debate around whether to use a consume price index that excludes things food and rent?
The new youth unemployment numbers now exclude students. In school. In China’s notoriously challenging education system. Shocking. Massively corrupt. Politicized. Terrible. Basically communism.
Get a grip. Turns out, as your population increasingly pursues higher education, fewer youth are looking for jobs.
