USA Solar installation exports topped 700 million usd in 2009

[Breakable]

http://earthandindustry.com/2010/12/back-in-black-us-now-a-net-exporter-of-solar/

[Brian H]

Hm, interesting economics here. One country’s subsidized industry selling to other countries’ subsidized consumers and legislatively enforced users. I wonder, were all the subsidies rolled back, who is actually paying for what.

Also, if you look at the detail in the bar chart, the US was actually in deficit in every area except ‘polysilicon’, which I assume is more or less the raw materials end of the stick.

[vansig]

“Polysilicon manufacturing market is in a very fast change now (2010). With high spot-prices in 2008/2009 and lack of available material, many companies announced additional capacities for the coming years.

“Leading producers as of 2010 are:
Hemlock Semiconductor (capacity 2010: 36 kt) from USA
Wacker Chemie (capacity 2010: 25 kt) from Germany,
GCL-Poly (capacity 2010: 18kt) from Hongkong,
OCI (capacity 2010: 17 kt) from South Korea,
MEMC Electronic Materials (capacity 2010: 8kt) from USA,
Renewable Energy Corporation ASA (REC) (capacity 2010: 17kt) from Norway and
Tokuyama (capacity 2010: 8,2 kt) from Japan.

— http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycrystalline_silicon#Manufacturers

Hemlock Semiconductor Group is owned by Dow Corning, a joint venture.

“In total, the Hemlock Semiconductor group has announced investments of up to $4.5 billion in the past five years to increase polysilicon capacity to meet the growing needs of the solar industry. By 2015, the joint ventures will have increased polysilicon manufacturing capacity by up to 10 times over that 10-year span.
— http://www.hscpoly.com/content/hsc_comp/$3.aspx

[Author]

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