A Bad Week for Solar

Well the last weeks has seen 2 interesting announcements for Solar Power. Ill give you the bad news first and then the good:

BP Solar to close manufacturing plant in Sydney

This was an announcement last week from BP Solar, which will mean the end of any commercially available solar modules manufactured in Australia. BP announced that its reason to close the plant is because it is competing with plants 20 times its size and cannot compete on pricing. This is sad news for the Solar industry as well as Australian local manufacturing. Todae has been selling BP Solar products for a few years now, and although we are not tied in exclusively to BP products, we have always supported and promoted them due to the fact that they are Australian made and therefore have lower embodied energy (as they don’t need to be shipped from overseas) than other solar modules. We also encouraged their sales because they are supporting the local industry and economy.

Although I agree with BP that it would be difficult to produce solar panels here for the same price as larger offshore factories, I cant say I agree with the decision to close the plant. As a reseller of these products, we know that there is a large demand for them, and have occasionally had to wait for certain products that are not in stock as demand has been too high. With growing demand for solar panels in general and a strengthening demand for local product (especially when our dollar is so volatile), I have no doubt there is still a lucrative market in Australia for locally manufactured modules. To me, this is a sad reflection of our manufacturing and purchasing mentality – to always err towards offshore products as they are cheaper to produce. I feel we really need to change this way of thinking (and behaving) if we want long term protection of our economy and our environment. All I can say is that I hope another Australian entity buys the plant and keeps producing solar modules locally – I know I would if I had the funds!

Danin

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