SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Between 2008 and 2013, China's fledgling solar-electric panel industry dropped world prices by 80 percent, a stunning achievement in a fiercely competitive high-tech market. China had leapfrogged from nursing a tiny, rural-oriented solar program in the 1990s to become the globe's leader in what may soon be the world's largest renewable energy source.
[...] China's new dominance of nearly all aspects of solar use and manufacturing—markets that are predicted to expand by 13 percent a year, according to the report—came through a "unique, complex and interdependent set of circumstances" that is not likely to be repeated.
[...] According to some veterans in the U.S. solar industry, China bought solar companies and invited others to move to China, where they found cheap, skilled labor. Instead of paying taxes, they received tax credits.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-china-is-dominating-the-solar-industry/
Wikipedia has more stats/charts
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday February 06 2017, @10:34PM
The last time the US was truly great? Late 90's, when the biggest question was whether the Dem president should bang the ugly intern, while leading the longest expansion of the economy and wages...
And even then, a lot of it was based on fluff [sorry].
Since I'm responding here, someone does need to point out that the Chinese solar panel production is HIGHLY automated, so it's not about cheap labor... (the part about lax environment rules does help, but again, not something to strive to compete against).
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday February 06 2017, @10:41PM
Speaking of highly automated. New factories like Elon's battery and solar factories. How automated are those? How many jobs do they actually create?
If America wants to dominate the solar panel industry then we shouldn't be focusing on "clean" coal and fossil fuels. Those are needed for now. But the focus should be the future. Solar is getting cheaper.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 07 2017, @01:24AM
I've read that the new Solar City (Tesla) factory in Buffalo, NY will employ about 1500 people. This is for what is being billed as the largest solar cell/panel factory in the western hemisphere. I think the number of jobs was higher when the plant was first expanded to the current size*, so perhaps there have been improvements in automation year on year?
* When first proposed, this plant was much smaller.
Would be interesting to hear from someone that knows about the battery Gigafactory.