[quote=gzz]Utility scale solar tends to be made in USA and rooftop in China. China has a glut and is slashing prices already, to keep production up they may have to cover the tariff themselves.[/quote]
Utility scale USA PV solar is not only made in the USA, and rooftop is not only China.
Primary manufacturing countries include China, Taiwan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines.
One thing that makes it hard to find where the PV panels are built is because a company located in one country will source the manufacture in another. For example; Trina Solar (China) actually manufactured the panels in Taiwan as well as China; SunPower (USA) manufactures in the Philippines and Malaysia, First Solar (USA) manufactures in Malaysia.
[quote=gzz]It is a lousy business to be in, high capital and r&d costs and falling prices. We should let the Chinese have it.[/quote]
I would keep the high efficiency panels to ourselves and slowly outsource the manufacture to other countries as we come up with higher efficiencies.
Here is a good map: https://news.energysage.com/where-solar-panels-are-manufactured/
You have to go down a bit on their page though. Most of these are residential manufacturers. First Solar is not listed because they are a low efficiency panel and really only work where space is not a premium.
Somewhere I have a document showing how reliable different manufacturers are and what the measured vs expected degradation of the panel is.
NOTE: For Utility type installations, Concentrators (ie bird friers) tend to be much more efficient. Conversion on Utility PV tends to be way below 15%, while concentrators run above 80% when mirrors are clean.
I wonder which percentage of those ‘streamers’ are birds. I could see the insects getting attracted to the bright light, but it might drive birds away. I do wonder if birds will start learning and start parking themselves near the base to get ‘precooked’ insect meals.
