BRINGING SOLAR MANUFACTURING BACK TO THE U.S.

Solar-cell manufacturing costs: innovation could level the field; Study shows that factors other than wages dominate trends in photovoltaic costs, raising the prospect of competitive manufacturing anywhere.

David L. Chandler, September 5, 2013 (MIT News Office)

“…China is [not] the world’s dominant manufacturer of solar panels because of its low labor costs and strong government support…[Though China accounted for 63 percent of all solar-panel production worldwide in 2011, a] new study by researchers at MIT and the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) shows that other factors are actually more significant — suggesting that the United States could once again become cost-competitive in photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing…[The] detailed analysis of all costs associated with PV production shows that the main contributors to [China’s] lower PV prices are economies of scale and well-developed supply chains — not cheap labor…” click here for more

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