I've been considering the Chinese issue...
I've done quite a bit of reading in the last three weeks on this topic of the Chinese undercutting the US manufacturers and now the Germans, to the point my brain was about to explode. The big picture and the background positioning is quite more interesting than what I thought it was. I have to hand it to the Chinese leadership, they don't think quarterly, they think out 30-40 years at a time...read on. I think I see another way on this solar undercutting issue, that would benefit us, long-term, as well. I've concluded, what's the point in investing in homegrown manufacturing when Chinese competition comes along and crushes it all? What's the point in struggling, when by the end of the year, 85% of PV cells manufactured worldwide are expected to be manufactured in Asia? This from a study by the IMS Research firm. Maybe the proper angle to take depends upon a little cooperation with the Chinese. Let them build the damn cells, they can do it cheaply. Prices are diving 15%-20% yearly with regularity, which only helps us. Perhaps the real jobs are in engineering and other area still untapped (more on this in a second) for home or business tie-in. Also, consider the services are local for an installed base. The installers for the US market are located in the US, not China. You can't outsource that, can you? How many heating and air conditioning guys are out there? How many plumbers? Imagine a whole, new other industry of similar experts popping up, with all the industries that in turn support them. Now I learned an interesting thing about the government mandated push for solar in China. All buildings, residential and business, are getting panels. Even a pig farm (why?) received them. With power being produced locally on site, the requirement for an upgraded, expensive grid infrastructure is partially removed, with the eventual upgrade and completion not being imperative. Money that would be spent on a vast upgraded national grid structure, in an attempt to bring one billion people into the 21st century, is being directed to other needed areas. But more importantly in the here and now, the locally produced power takes the load of the aging and failing grid (sound familiar, rolling blackouts?). Perhaps they're on to something.