Solar panel factories in U.S. going broke, government subsidies enriched a small group

Discussion in 'Environment & Conservation' started by kazenatsu, Sep 3, 2024.

  1. HT!

    HT! Banned

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    Explained way back in 2011:

    Representative Cliff Stearns, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on oversight, seemed to speak for many on the right when he recently argued for nixing federal support of green energy. This gets things exactly backward. If anything, the DOE needs to increase, not abandon, its funding for clean energy. All the focus on this one problematic loan—which represented only 1.3 percent of the loans that the DOE has backed—badly misses the bigger picture: Because we are paying a heavy price in pollution and global warming for our promiscuous use of fossil fuels, and because oil is eventually going to become too expensive, the United States simply has to wean itself off traditional sources of energy. And we are not going to do so without government investment in alternatives.


    The reason is that the private sector cannot develop clean energy industries on its own. Factories that make solar panels or advanced batteries can cost more than $500 million. The payoff on these investments may not come for a decade, until the price of production falls as a result of new innovations and efficiencies. The industries also have to develop in tandem. You can’t have viable electric cars without new battery technology and without a smart grid that can prevent power blackouts. And, if the electric grid is still dependent on oil and coal, what’s the point? So the funding has to be extensive and long-term, and has to include manufacturing as well as research and development.


    China doesn't have a Republican Party willing to sabotage their country's future for political gotcha moments.

    Republicans, owned by Big Oil, refused to invest in Green energy, and China said "thank you! We'll develop it using the massive interest payments the USA pays us for their debt, which is also due to the Republicans and their wars of choice".

    And now China is the giant in solar panels.
     
  2. HT!

    HT! Banned

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    A poster here, undistinguished, purported that Florida's highest in the nation homeowners insurance is due to the hurricanes.

    Hence my question about Louisiana and the Carolinas.

    Do try to keep up.
     
  3. HT!

    HT! Banned

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    Non-answer. I guess you're stumped.
     
  4. AFM

    AFM Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Red China is also the giant in coal fired power plants. And they are also the giant in solar panel and wind turbine exports which weaken the western the economies of the western democracies.
     
  5. AFM

    AFM Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    You can’t back up your assertion. That’s unseemly.
     
  6. HT!

    HT! Banned

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    Because the government helps to fund innovation, unlike Republicans in the US.
     
  7. AFM

    AFM Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    The Chinese Communist Party subsidizes solar panels and wind turbines resulting in an unfair advantage. Red China is powered by coal not wind or solar. Red China makes money from wind and solar which is sold to the western democracies increasing the price of electricity which weakens the economies of the western democracies.
     
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  8. conservaliberal

    conservaliberal Well-Known Member

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    You nailed it, brother -- this stinks to high heaven in essentially the same way that SOLYNDRA did during Comrade Obama's regime.... It's like these goofy Democrat morons are on some kind of holy 'mission' to go seek out worthless ratholes to pour taxpayer money down into.

    Link: https://www.forbes.com/sites/adaman...re-hidden-inside-bidens-instructure-proposal/
     
    Last edited: Sep 7, 2024
  9. Sunsettommy

    Sunsettommy Well-Known Member

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    LOL,

    I just showed an example of gigantic waste of money by the DOE given to Solyndra who were already failing BEFORE they got that $525 million which went bankrupt Anway.


    Recall this from my source you ignored already:


    "Heavily promoted as a leader in the sustainable energy sector for its unusual technology, Solyndra was not able to compete with conventional solar panel manufacturers of crystalline silicon. In 2009, the Obama administration co-signed $535 million loans to Solyndra.

    The company filed for bankruptcy on September 1, 2011."


    You should stick with the facts.
     
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  10. Sunsettommy

    Sunsettommy Well-Known Member

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    Yeah, which Solyndra that was already a failed company getting to KEEP $527 million as they vanish from the landscape.
     
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  11. Sunsettommy

    Sunsettommy Well-Known Member

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    Which you NEVER countered while you ran off to list other states with useless words as you didn't make case at all.
     
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  12. AFM

    AFM Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Has Red China been producing solar products using Solyndra technology? The answer is NO. Why not?
     
  13. HT!

    HT! Banned

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    As I am without crayons, I'll just ask it simply: if Florida rates have skyrocketed due to hurricanes, why hasn't that happened in Louisiana and the Carolinas, who get as many hurricanes as Florida does?
     
  14. AFM

    AFM Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Do a Google search and find out for yourself. It’s easy. I did and hurricanes are a factor.
     
  15. conservaliberal

    conservaliberal Well-Known Member

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    Well, the short answer is that Solyndra was finally forced to cease operations in 2011. But, thanks to its Democrat 'bedfellows' under Comrade Obama, it managed to waste hundreds of millions of dollars before it finally died.

    Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solyndra#Shutdown_and_investigation
     
  16. AFM

    AFM Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Their product was too expensive and inefficient. It could only exist with government subsidies and funding.
     
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  17. conservaliberal

    conservaliberal Well-Known Member

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    Bingo! It's true of nearly everything that some Democrat brainiac dreams up -- it's almost always poorly thought-out, and, is almost always heavily reliant on government funding. Oh, and I almost forgot -- it almost always ends up being a FLOP, too....
     
    Last edited: Sep 7, 2024
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  18. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    To avoid derailing the discussion topic in this thread, if you want to talk about the Florida governor and the high insurance prices in that state, I suggest you take the discussion to this thread:

    Is Florida Governor DeSantis to blame for home insurance prices skyrocketing in the state? (in Economics & Trade, Sept 6, 2024)
     
    Last edited: Sep 8, 2024
  19. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I think you're confusing "funding innovation" with massive subsidies for those "innovations" to be used in the market.

    If progressives simply wanted to fund scientific research into designing wind and solar power, you would not hear so many complaints from Republicans.

    Giving companies massive amounts of money to build things when those "innovations" already exist is not "innovation".
     
    Last edited: Sep 8, 2024
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