A decade from now, the wind and solar transition will resemble Alice’s trip down the rabbit hole – a place inhabited by lunatics and where nothing makes sense. Massive and seemingly endless subsidies have perverted the ordinary signals that free and open markets deliver. In Europe, the grand wind and solar rush has come to a grinding halt. Nuclear power is on the rise and several countries have scrapped their wind and solar targets, altogether.
Where the demand for solar panels (for both large-scale and domestic situations) looked insatiable, in Europe the market has virtually collapsed.
China is, however, pumping out solar panels at the same rate, but with Europe’s market completely flooded Germans and Dutch (among others) have started using panels as garden fencing, thanks to giveaway pricing.
As the team from Jo Nova points out below, the collapse in demand for and the price of solar panels coincides with the announcement by Australia’s Federal Labor government of a $1 billion taxpayer-backed slush fund to establish a solar manufacturing plant in NSW’s Hunter Valley.
On top of that, the State Labor government of NSW will stump up a further $275 million of taxpayers’ money. Pure economic lunacy, and just another manifestation of unhinged socialism dreamt up by arts grads masquerading as sound economic policy.
Global glut in solar panels so bad, people are using them for garden fences, just as Australia looks to jump in
Jo Nova Blog
Jo Nova
8 April 2024
There is such a glut in solar panels, the Financial Times reported that people in Germany and the Netherlands are using them as cheap garden fencing, even though the angle is not good for catching the sun. Though given that there is also a glut of solar power at lunchtime this is probably a “good” thing.
Great time for the Australian Government to spend a billion dollars setting up a giant solar panel production industry, eh?
With exquisite timing the Australian Labor government has just announced a $1billion Solar Sunshot for Our Regions. It our Prime Ministers ambition for us to be a “Renewable Energy Superpower” twenty years too late. One third of homes in Australia already have solar panels, but only 1% were made here. The NSW State government will also lob $275 million to support the embryonic industry and workers, most of whom will presumably be doorknocking to give away the panels with lamingtons. After we finish building garden fences, we might be using them to build sheds and cubby houses.
The big solar rush is over…
The global frenzy to install solar panels has suddenly flattened out last year when it was supposed to be launching for orbit. The IEA estimated the world now has about 800 GW of solar panel plants. But demand for solar panels this year is only expected to be 402GW. The glut is so bad, the whole global solar panel industry could take half the year off to play golf and no one would notice.
In the media, everyone is saying “China has flooded the market”, but for some reason, no one wants to mention that the demand curve has suddenly slowed. The CCP has bet big on renewables sales and was probably expecting that rapidly rising curve to take off. Instead as interest rate rises clamped down on “luxury” spending people ditched their plans to install solar PV.
The glut should be no surprise to any investor. The over supply has been recognised since January. And any serious investor in solar PV would know that solar stocks around the world were down 40% in the first three quarters of last year. The Australian Prime Minister has a whole team of researchers and Ministers and none of them have even hired a high schooler to google the news on the solar industry?
China has flooded the market with so many solar panels that people are using them as garden fencing
Huileng Tan, Business Insider
China’s manufacturers are pumping out so many solar panels that the resulting global glut has caused prices to tank.
Solar panels are typically installed on rooftops, where they can capture the most sunlight — but there’s so much excess supply that some people are putting them on fences. This also saves on pricey labor and scaffolding costs required for roof installations, FT reported.
Fences covered in solar panels are also starting to take off in the UK, North America, and Australia.
Solar-panel supply globally is forecast to reach 1,100 gigawatts by the end of this year — three times more than demand, the International Energy Agency wrote in a report released in January.
If China makes 80% of the worlds solar panels, and if solar energy is so cheap and efficient, why doesn’t China just keep those panels and use them itself?
Jo Nova Blog
STOP THESE THINGS 
Well I never, to think I could probably get hold of sufficient disused/debunked solar panels cheap and set them into the boundary of my home, using them as fencing – I bet snakes would prefer not to have them but then maybe I would prefer not to have snakes ( large Brown, Red bellied Black and tiger) any any human ones come knocking on my door. I would say this is about the only useful thing we could do with all those worn out ones. Of course first you would have to ‘treat’ them to prevent breakage.
Jackie
They’re more use as a fence to be fair – according to Valentina Zharkova, the next GSM is upon us, with its associated global cooling, solar farms will be as useful as a chocolate fireguard