Solar Industry
topic on 4 shows · 12 statements across 12 episodes
Invest Like the Best 
Catalyst 
the Green Blueprint 
the a16z Podcast
12 statements about Solar Industry, every show
Lubershane: EVs benefited from early solar investments in power electronics
“Electric vehicles have obviously had, had this tremendous impact on, on batteries, but electric vehicles themselves benefited from early investments from the solar industry in, ah, power electronics, in wide band gap semiconductor materials, which enable highe…”
Moskowitz: Inflation Reduction Act made domestic solar reshoring economically feasible
“You know, you had trade policy, which kept the industry alive for a long time. It didn't necessarily allow it to reach the scale that it is now. But, you know, I think there'd been a focus and an effort to reshore, you know, even prior to the Inflation Reducti…”
Wang: About 90% of the solar industry is in China
“And now about 90% of the solar industry is in China, everything from the polysilicon processing down to the final module assembly”
Wang: China controls 90% of the global solar supply chain
“On the other hand, China owns pretty much 90% of this industry, everything from the polysilicon processing down to module assembly.”
Solar cost reductions consistently outpace hardware startup milestones
“And we were part of this amazing industry, the solar industry, that keeps deciding it's going to lower its costs much faster than anyone could ever predict. So that means we would get to our cost target, and the industry would have already moved way far ahead …”
Grunwald: Cultivated meat industry has raised only $3B in cumulative investment
“So far, the entire cultivated meat industry has had about three billion dollars worth of investment in its entire history, and right, the Inflation Reduction Act is, you know, building battery factories in Georgia for that, that are going to be twice that and …”
Shah: Net metering's value declines past 5% solar penetration
“I think we've always known that net metering has declining value beyond sort of five percent penetration, and, but when you get to five percent penetration, the solar industry has so much political power that they're able to keep things going.”
Zindler: The IRA is the most important solar legislation ever passed
“We have the most important piece of legislation ever passed to support the solar industry that is being rolled out and implemented now with a lot of open questions around that.”
Kann: Electrolyzer winners will be determined by scaling speed, not paper specs
“One of the other lessons from solar was like the best technology on paper did not necessarily win out. What won out at the end of the day was who could get to scale and who could manufacture quickly when the market was ramping. And I think we'll see something …”
Westhoff: Biden Clean Energy Promises Are Empty Rhetoric Under Solar Tariffs
“And Biden is also a union man, and there's a union aspect to keeping manufacturing going in the United States, and so Biden has to balance that out, but it's empty rhetoric if you're going to cut the industry off at its ankles with a tariff, and to then say we…”
Olmedo: Imperial Valley solar boom left hundreds with useless training certificates
“They promised the same thing, and now we ended up is with hundreds of people with certificates that are useless. Certificates for solar that, where there are no jobs.”