Zindler: Most new U.S. solar manufacturing announcements are lower-value module assembly
Ethan Zindler · Building out a U.S. solar supply chain · Jun 22, 2023 · at 14:23
BloombergNEF's Ethan Zindler evaluates early U.S. factory announcements spurred by the Inflation Reduction Act's domestic manufacturing subsidies.
0:00 / 0:12exact quote · 12.3s
720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“Most of it so far has been module assembly, and module assembly is the last step, and it's sort of, quote unquote, lowest value in terms of the you know, the value towards the whole, in terms of the whole process and the labor involved.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Ethan Zindler
Zindler: Subsidized US solar manufacturing is not guaranteed to beat Southeast Asia
“I don't think it's by any means a slam dunk that the U.S. Will be the lowest cost, you know, will, you know, it will fight to be competitive with Southeast Asian nations to produce this stuff. Even with these subsidies, I don't know that that's for certain tha…”
Zindler: Grid interconnection, not price, will be solar's primary constraint
“It's whether you can get interconnection and get onto the grid. That is the, that is going to be really the limiting factor going forward. So all these other things are really cool, but like, you can add them, you can stack them, you can get a lot of benefit, …”
Zindler: First Solar is very well positioned for IRA manufacturing credits
“First Solar, obviously, as a U.S.-based company, is the one that Sort of licking its lips here, looking at these benefits because they are integrated. You know, they obviously have overseas production too, but they've got a lot, you know, a lot on U.S. Soil, y…”
Zindler: 80% to 85% of US Solar Equipment Came From Four Southeast Asian Countries
“About 80, 85% of All the equipment that was being installed in the U.S. Was coming from those four countries, and given that we don't make much stuff in the U.S., imports are massively important”