Over-generous subsidies and guaranteed over-the-market prices are the only explanation for rooftop solar. Having millions of mini (occasional) rooftop generation stations (aka domestic residences) never made any sense. Producing notionally ‘useful’ power for 5 or 6 hours a day – weather permitting – never made any sense, but nothing about the grand wind and solar ‘transition’ ever does.
In Germany, solar panel manufacturers are being wiped out by flood of cheap Chinese imports. Suffering the highest power prices in Europe, has rendered Germany thoroughly incapable of competing with China’s cheap (coal-fired) power advantage.
Notwithstanding Chinese competitiveness, Australia’s Federal government (a group of energy illiterate Greens and left-wing lunatics) is poised to throw billions of Australian taxpayer dollars at manufacturing solar panels in Australia. Notwithstanding our high and increasing labour costs and our staggering and crushing energy costs.
The guidance on how that is likely to pan out, our glorious leadership need look no further than California.
California led the charge on state-subsidised domestic solar, including backing their own solar panel manufacturing industry with even more subsidies and tax breaks.
Now that California is awash with electricity generated by hundreds of millions of panels on millions of homes for a few hours either side of high noon, the subsidies and ludicrously generous feed in tariffs are being slashed. The predictable result: California’s solar panel makers are totally busted.
Major Solar Company Files For Bankruptcy After California Strips Subsidies
Daily Caller
Nick Pope
6 August 2024
SunPower, a major rooftop solar company, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Monday, the company announced.
SunPower filed for bankruptcy in Delaware after a string of corporate struggles, changes to California’s rooftop solar subsidy programs and high interest rates weighed down its business, according to Bloomberg News. Before it unraveled, SunPower was among the leading solar companies in the U.S.
SunPower will look to sell some of its assets to Complete Solaria while the company and some of its other subsidiaries file for bankruptcy announced, SunPower said in its Monday announcement.
“In light of the challenges SunPower has faced, the proposed transaction offers a significant opportunity for key parts of our business to continue our legacy under new ownership,” Tom Werner, SunPower’s executive chairman, said of the bankruptcy and the Complete Solaria transaction. “We are working to secure long-term solutions for the remaining areas of our business, while maintaining our focus on supporting our valued employees, customers, dealers, builders, and partners.”
In 2023, state policymakers changed California’s rooftop solar subsidy programs and weakened the incentive for companies to push rooftop solar by reducing payments to homeowners who sell back excess power the panels generate, according to CalMatters.
Those changes negatively affected SunPower’s business, culminating in its bankruptcy filing, according to Bloomberg.
Prior to its bankruptcy, SunPower showed signs of distress. In 2023, the firm defaulted on a credit deal and restated its earnings before getting a new CEO, restructuring and stopping new solar shipments and installations in 2024, according to Bloomberg.
SunPower did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
Daily Caller
STOP THESE THINGS 