Technology

59440 readers

3476 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

Follow the lemmy.world rules.
Only tech related content.
Be excellent to each another!
Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
Politics threads may be removed.
No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

112

Beijing intervenes in China’s solar industry as overcapacity dries up profit in the country's domestic market (www.semafor.com)

submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by 0x815@feddit.org to c/technology@lemmy.world

14 comments fedilink hide all child comments

China’s energy regulator said it will limit “low-end” solar panel manufacturing after industry leaders called for more government intervention earlier this month. The move is an acknowledgement by Beijing that solar panel overcapacity is a problem, one that has pushed Chinese solar firms into a price war and shriveled returns.
The competition in China’s solar power industry is “indeed very fierce,” an official at the National Energy Administration (NEA) said at a press conference Thursday.
A price war on solar panels in China has meant that big firms have rapidly lost profit while small firms risk bankruptcy.
Historically, the industry has been propped up by city governments, which build solar panel factories to lease or sell to private firms. But while some local authorities have expressed willingness to continue to keep solar firms afloat, “that support may dry up as the provinces are themselves swimming in debt, largely stemming from the country’s property crisis, and solar has to compete for their support with other green tech sectors, like electric vehicles, that are also struggling with overcapacity.
Chinese officials want homeowners to install solar panels to combat overcapacity, but China’s grid is still not able to accommodate fluctuating solar energy levels.
One solution may be virtual power plants: smaller-scale grids that rely on local renewable energy infrastructure and incentivize homeowners to use that energy during peak times with cash payments. But beyond building a new grid meant to handle renewable energy, China also needs “improved coordination” from Beijing to enable solar-heavy provinces to trade energy with solar-weak provinces.
China’s energy regulator is also pushing for more spot trading — where prices will fluctuate with supply and demand — rather than fixed rates, encouraging customers to use energy during low-demand periods.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] schizoidman@lemmy.ml 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

If you have been following the Chinese solar industry, you would be aware that solar manufacturers from China, such as Suntec etc have gone bankrupt over the past decade or more. China's approach of allowing underperforming solar companies to go bankrupt is one of the reasons why their solar industry is so formidable.

[–] technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 4 months ago

Pretty sure every politician in usa buys stock in the first shitty company and then subsidizes it until it becomes a permanent fixture.