Assertion Supported
Moskowitz: US domestic solar module capacity of 40-50 GW meets total demand
“And, you know, at the moment, we have enough module capacity to supply U.S. Demand. That's, you know, 40 to 50 gigawatts a year, and there's probably even more than that.”
Opinion
Moskowitz: Chinese solar manufacturing yields cheap, durable, and high-quality products
“Solar panel manufacturing, especially to the extent that it's clustered in China, is, you know, these products are incredible. They last for a long time, they're cheap, they're, they are we continue to have them get better, but they're really, really incredibl…”
Opinion
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…”
Assertion Contradicted
Moskowitz: Nearly all solar panels purchased in the US are domestically assembled
“And, you know, we're at a point now where, you know, if you're a buyer of solar panels in the United States, pretty much every panel you're going to get is at least domestically assembled.”
Assertion Supported
Moskowitz: Only Qcells and Hemlock Corning produce solar wafers in the US
“At the moment, there's only two companies, Qcells and Hemlock Corning, that are making wafers, are about to start making wafers in the United States.”
Assertion Supported
Moskowitz: US-made solar remains cost-competitive with other energy sources on LCOE
“Even when a product is made in the United States, and in solar, solar specifically, It is still cost competitive with other forms of technology. You look at Lazard's LCOE models and those cost charts, solar is always going to be right on the bottom, and that i…”
Assertion Partly supported
Moskowitz: Clean energy is the only expanding US manufacturing sector
“Manufacturing as a whole has contracted in the United States over the last five years, except for clean energy manufacturing.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Moskowitz: US solar at 30 cents per watt remains cheapest to deploy
“The reality is, is, again, even at 30 cents a watt, and if we're made in the U.S., we are still the cheapest and fastest thing to deploy in pretty much every scenario.”
Insight
Moskowitz: Domestic manufacturing creates the political power necessary to scale deployment
“When you have a manufacturing basis, you have political power. You have Lots and lots of durable, really good jobs that you want to support, and that's one of the reasons I think China went from, you know, installing two times as much solar as the U.S. To 10 t…”
Assertion Supported
Moskowitz: US solar plants compete globally against massive 5-20 gigawatt facilities
“We've had a bunch of, like, a couple hundred megawatt plants here and there, but we're competing on a global basis for five, 10, 20 gigawatt type plants.”
Assertion Partly supported
Moskowitz: Post-IRA US clean tech manufacturing investment surged more than fivefold
“Rhodium had reports of, you know, how much investment came out in the two years following the IRA is relative to before it, in this sector in particular, and it was five times easily.”
Assertion Supported
Moskowitz: China supported 3 million solar jobs while installing twice US capacity
“If you looked at the jobs figures for how much the U.S. Had versus how much China had, It was like, 250,000 jobs in the U.S. And three million in China. So they were installing twice as much, but they had 10 times as many jobs.”
