There is a US company called Applied Materials which makes machines that make the microchips that go into computers. This business being a bit volatile the owners of this company decided in 2004 to go into making solar panels. They now have 14 factories making solar panels. Not a single one is in the USA. Five are in Germany, four are in China, one each in Spain, India, Italy, Taiwan and Abu Dhabi.
The reason these other countries are getting these factories is because of government policies. The governments in these countries have installed the following regulations: Any business or home can generate solar energy, if they decide to do so the power utility HAS to connect them to the grid, and the utility HAS to buy the power for a predictable period at a price that is a good deal for the family or business putting the solar panels on their roof tops.
Regulatory, price and connectivity certainty, that is what the German government put in place and that is why Germany now generates almost half the world's solar power and is making itself the world center for solar research and engineering.
The world is on track to add another 2.5 billion people by 2050. In such a world the demand for renewable energy will be huge. China now understands this. It no longer believes it can pollute its way to prosperity because it would choke to death. The New York Times says: "That is the most important shift in the world in the last 18 months. China has decided that clean-tech is going to be the next great global industry and is now creating a massive domestic market for solar and wind, which will give it a great export platform."
In the mean time the backward arrogant US capitalist class steams ahead with its fossil fuel thinking. US capitalism is sleighing towards a precipice with its eyes shut. Economically, technologically, politically, militarily it is sinking deeper and deeper into crisis.
Sean
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