Conflicting goals often leads to the worst of both outcomes. That’s what’s happening with solar panels and EVs.
SunPower Went Bankrupt Despite Huge Subsidies
The Wall Street Journal reports Another Green Energy Subsidy Bust
The 39-year-old SunPower is the latest solar rooftop business to fail this year. Others include Titan Solar Power and Sunworks. SunPower cited a “severe liquidity crisis caused by a sharp decline in demand in the solar market and SunPower’s inability to obtain new capital.” The IRA boosted solar subsidies, so why has demand fallen?
One reason is higher interest rates have made rooftop panel leasing less attractive to customers. Some states like California have scaled back programs that pay customers to send solar power they don’t use to the grid. Such subsidies raise the cost of power for people who don’t have panels. In California the grid is often overloaded with solar power.
The cost of panels has also increased amid overall inflation and President Biden’s tariffs, which were backed by domestic manufacturers and Democrats in Congress. Solar installers warned the tariffs would hurt their industry, and they have. Jobs that Mr. Biden’s subsidies giveth, his tariffs and inflation taketh.
Offshore wind projects are also getting scratched because of rising costs and interest rates that make them uneconomic even with subsidies. BP last year wrote down its U.S. offshore wind business by $1.1 billion. Wind developer Orsted last autumn announced $4 billion in write-downs after walking away from two projects off the New Jersey coast.
BP recently scaled back a planned U.S. biofuels investment. Shell this year said it would close its hydrogen refueling stations in California as few people are buying fuel-cell vehicles, and subsidies for hydrogen production have fallen. Talk about stranded assets.
Tariffs and Subsidies Backfire
Biden only wants clean energy if it every piece of it is made in the USA. That means higher costs, even with subsidies.
I commented on this in advance as it was easy to see.
The attempt force production of solar panels in the US resulted in prices so high that few wanted them.
Three Results
- No noticeable increase in US production
- Lost jobs from installers
- No furthering of clean energy goals
Ford is Losing $100,000 on Every EV
Despite subsidies, Here’s the Staggering Amount of Money Ford Loses on Each EV It Makes
- A report says Ford is losing more than $100,000 on each EV.
- Ford is reducing spending on EV plans by $12 billion.
- Ford is estimated to lose $5.5 billion from its Model e division in 2024.
You either want a faster rollout of EVs and clean energy projects or you don’t.
Insisting companies use only made-in-USA components when the infrastructure is not in place and demand is low leads to losses like these.
Unfortunately, we are in for tariff wars no matter who wins the election.