Semms like damn good news in a way
So long as demand is high enough to keep the businesses afloat, absolutely.
In a way kinda. It’s problematic though that China is using Uyghur forced labour to produce cheap solar panels.
This of course allows them to undercut any other manufacturer, driving them out of the market. So the delivery chain is getting kinda small and the products have forced labour attached to them.
“China uses Uyghur forced labour to make solar panels, says report” Published 14 May 2021 (Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-57124636)
It’s no secret that a lot of the industry almost depends on slavery… It’s disgusting how corporations crave in to China simply because money with an actual slavery. Very much real proof that no matter how companies sprinkle their logos with rainbows and everything, they don’t care and would go organ harvesting kids if that is legal and lucrative.
There’s an interesting economic crisis point coming alongside plummeting solar and battery costs. At some point soon, the cost of installing battery backed solar on private properties will be cheaper than the cost of the wiring for the grid. At that point, even if the electricity feeding the grid cost zero dollars to produce, the grid itself will cost more than generating your own power. So, from a purely financial perspective, anyone who has the space to install solar should install solar.
This leads to an interesting feedback loop. We can’t shut down the grid, because there are people in apartments and things that need it – not enough surface area on an apartment roof to generate enough solar. So they will still have to pay for the grid. With fewer and fewer grid connected buildings, however, the cost of maintaining the grid disproportionately goes to those without land. This dramatically alters the value of land in favour of those that own it. It feeds sprawl, and exacerbates the gap between the rich and the poor.
Industrial users will bear much of the grid cost – most factories cannot power themselves with solar, particularly those in high energy industries. But, it’s possible that the high energy factories just buy farmland so they can set up mostly autonomous facilities outside the cities. Not solar, but this is a good example: ammonia plant building its own wind farm in the middle of nowhere https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/evrec-marine-group-wind-hydrogen-ammonia-botwood-grand-falls-central-1.6754995
Long short: expect there to be social disruption due to low solar and battery prices. Deurbanization is a likely byproduct.
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