West vs China in Solar war
>> Saturday, September 19, 2009
Europe's solar energy industry is facing a wave of bankruptcies because Asian companies offer their products much cheaper. Several German producers of solar cells, panels and modules, including large market-leading companies, have reported massive first-half losses. (Read the article:http://www.upi.com/Science_News/Resource-Wars/2009/09/09/West-vs-China-in-solar-war/UPI-25781252515090/ )"West vs China in Solar war." Can the West decrease its production costs in in the solar industry by optimizing its processes?
Instead of setting tariff barriers for Made-In China solar cells, why not just reduce 30% of the costs by optimizing the processes? Through Value Stream Analysis and other proven methods, costs can relatively be reduced by up to 20%.
Also, it would be interesting to know if anybody in this group might know about the costs of installing solar panels to feed a whole town as big as Zurich with electricity? How are the costs distributed: how much goes into the actual solar panel costs, and how much actually goes into the installation?
If a town in the size of Zurich uses solar power as its energy source, it is said that its costs are 2.5 times higher than generic energies. Why is that and what can we do to lower those costs? Is process optimization a way to decrease costs for renewable energy solutions?
