I’m not saying no one else could do it obviously, we’re talking about something China straight up did, mearly that if the US wanted in, it could have gotten in. The process is not that sensitive to labor prices and so gets limited benefit from being in a poorer country. Easily the largest constraint on scaling has been the start up capital, and most poor countries don’t have the kind of capital required. The US does.
The US had first mover advantage, we’ve been building cells for specialized applications at scale since the 70s. We could have turned that leed into a massive supply of cheap panels for export in the two thousands, but instead threw it away in favor of more government fossil investment and now taking about an article where conservatives are wining about it.
I’m not saying no one else could do it obviously, we’re talking about something China straight up did, mearly that if the US wanted in, it could have gotten in. The process is not that sensitive to labor prices and so gets limited benefit from being in a poorer country. Easily the largest constraint on scaling has been the start up capital, and most poor countries don’t have the kind of capital required. The US does.
The US had first mover advantage, we’ve been building cells for specialized applications at scale since the 70s. We could have turned that leed into a massive supply of cheap panels for export in the two thousands, but instead threw it away in favor of more government fossil investment and now taking about an article where conservatives are wining about it.