End of the line for solar gravy train?

If the collapse of the perceived value of solar PV stocks is anything to go by it would appear as Fraser would say that “we are all doomed”. Major Chinese c-Si (crystalline silicon, conventional) PV manufacturers Trina and JA Solar share prices fell 17% in two days on the NY stock exchange with demand for their commodity products dropping like a silicon ingot in free fall as European governments finally wake up to the realisation that they have been conned into pouring gazillions of tax payers money into probably the worst low carbon generation investment since Olkiluoto.
The much vaunted German FiT, foisted disingenuously upon an unsuspecting public as a green energy initiative when it was in fact an industrial policy, has backfired spectacularly on both counts. Not only is this albatross legacy around the benighted German taxpayers’ neck committing them to decades of further subsidy payments, it is imposing almost unbearable strains on the electricity system for a few brief periods in summer when the sun is actually shining, and delivering naff all useful energy in winter when the sun is not shining and the energy is actually needed. To cap it all, the anticipated sustainable growth in green collar employment is disappearing as fast as the jobs move to China not, ironically because Chinese labour is cheaper (the labour content of C-Si is only a few percent of the total cost), but because the Chinese, with their characteristic sense of fair play, are subsidising land, capital and…energy prices to their PV industry. And energy is the defining cost component for c-Si PV. Of course a ten year old could have told you that if your energy cost has to bear the burden of FIT then the cost of electricity is going to rise. The more you give to PV, the more the cost will rise. So, not surprisingly, the cost of electricity in Germany is now so high that it is inconceivable that their PV industry can survive for long and indeed there are very few manufacturers left even now.

Now, given the tone of my previous posts you might think this is little more than a self indulgent touch of schadenfreude, but I derive little pleasure that it has taken so many wasted years and billions of our finite resources to recognise that we, in Northern Europe, should be investing in renewable and low carbon technologies which are better suited to our economy, climate and energy needs. I am not alone in this view, although until recent pronouncements by the German Advisory Council on the Environment, those of us who dared to voice such opinions had been consigned to an equivalent of the “climate denial” camp or accused of being nuclear apologists or simply in the pocket of the “big six” VILES who, as we are all aware, eagerly await the demise of the energy system and the entire economy with it just so long as they can continue to pollute our green and pleasant land.

So what exactly have the Germans said? For the full text click here, but in essence, to quote one member:

"From the standpoint of the climate, every solar system is a bad investment"