China Dominates Solar. Can the U.S. Even Stand a Chance? | WSJ U.S. vs. China

中国主导太阳能领域。美国还有机会吗? | 华尔街日报 美国对抗中国

The first solar panels were invented in America in 1954. Yet it's been China that's been better able to capitalize on the technology. China was one of the first countries to realize the potential of solar panels. China actually took it and really commercialized it at a large scale. 

Now China controls over 80 percent of the global solar panel supply chain, while the United States manufactures virtually none of the required components for solar panel production. So to effectively compete with China in solar panel manufacturing, the US is prioritizing building up its supply chain basically from scratch.

Today the U.S has less than half of the solar capacity that China does. And of the solar panels that are installed in the U.S, nearly four out of five of them are from Chinese companies. China has such a head start when it comes to solar panel manufacturing, because they dominate the entire global supply chain. 

That's because in recent years, China has spent almost 10 times as much on solar manufacturing than the US and the EU combined. And of the world's top 10 largest solar manufacturers, seven are Chinese, only one is American. 

That stark difference plays out in each country's energy mix. According to the EIA, solar energy makes up 12 percent of China's total electricity generation capacity, yet it only makes up about 3.4 percent of the US's total electricity generation capacity.

It was really this idea that they were just going to shoot for the moon and go big, and that has huge implications and dragged, frankly, the rest of the world into this clean energy as a real option, not a play thing.

中文:

第一批太阳能电池板是在1954年由美国人发明的。然而,是中国更善于利用这项技术赚钱。中国是第一个意识到太阳能电池板潜力的国家之一。中国实际上采取行动,在大规模层面将其商业化。

现在,中国控制着全球80%以上的太阳能电池板供应链,而美国基本上不制造太阳能电池板生产所需的任何组件。因此,为了在太阳能电池板制造业与中国有效竞争,美国正优先从零开始建立其供应链。

如今,美国的太阳能发电量不到中国的一半。在美国安装的太阳能电池板中,近四分之五是来自中国公司的。中国之所以在太阳能电池板制造业占据绝对优势,是因为他们主宰着整个全球供应链。 

这是因为,近年来,中国在太阳能制造业上的投入几乎是美国和欧盟Combined的10倍。在全球10大太阳能制造商中,有7家是中国公司,只有1家是美国公司。

这一明显差异反映在两国的能源结构中。根据美国能源信息署的数据,太阳能在中国总发电量中的比重为12%,而在美国仅占3.4%。

中国的确决心要冲向月球,走大规模发展,这对全世界产生了巨大影响,将清洁能源作为一个真正的选择拖入视野,而不仅仅是玩具。

英文:

One key area where the U.S has an advantage is silica sand, the primary mineral used for solar generation. It exports about $470 million worth of the mineral, and China is the world's largest importer of silica sand, importing it mainly from the United States, Australia and Indonesia. 

To make a panel, silica sand needs to be refined to create purified silicon, which is shaped into ingots and sliced into thin wafers. The wafers are cut into cells, and panel manufacturers then assemble the cells in a frame and add circuitry to create a finished module or panel.

But even though the United States has the raw materials, it has no manufacturers of silicon wafers or cells used for solar panel production. Manufacturing isn't just some Lego play. It's about figuring out how to do something quicker, more efficiently, better than others. 

Because China is able to produce solar panels at a significantly lower cost in global markets, the few U.S solar manufacturers that do exist heavily rely on importing components exclusive to China, and then assembling them domestically. 

The reason China has been able to bring down costs actually, and sustain quality of solar panels, they decided that they were going to build bigger plants, much bigger in size than the United States had in the early days. They incorporated new manufacturing approaches, including robotics, and they were so much larger with so much less human interaction that they were able to scale up. And this is actually China's real skill - how to make things and make it commercially viable and then cheap and accessible.

中文:

美国在二氧化硅砂(用于太阳能发电的主要矿物)方面占据优势。美国出口约4.7亿美元价值的该矿物,而中国是世界上最大的二氧化硅砂进口国,主要从美国、澳大利亚和印度尼西亚进口。

要制造太阳能组件,二氧化硅砂需要提炼成高纯硅,再制成硅锭切割成薄片。薄片切割成电池片,组件制造商然后将电池片装进框架,添加电路,制作成成品模块或组件。

尽管美国拥有原材料,但它没有用于太阳能电池板生产的硅片或电池制造商。制造业不仅仅是乐高玩具。它意味着弄清楚如何更快、更高效、比别人做得更好地完成事情。

由于中国能够以全球市场上显著更低的成本生产太阳能电池板,实际存在的少数美国太阳能制造商高度依赖进口中国独有的组件,然后在国内组装。

中国之所以能够实际降低成本,同时保持太阳能电池板的质量,是因为他们决定要建设更大的工厂,远大于美国早期的规模。他们采用了新的制造方法,包括机器人,由于规模更大、人力参与更少,他们能够实现规模化生产。这实际上是中国的真正技能——如何制造产品,并使其成为商业化的产品,然后便宜易得。

英文: 

The Inflation Reduction Act passed in August 2022 hopes to accelerate the transition to a clean energy economy. For solar manufacturing, that means incentives for boosting panel installations and tax credits for manufacturing solar components in the United States. 

We in the U.S have never had really industrial policy to support that kind of manufacturing, right? It's only now with the Inflation Reduction Act that we have the kind of domestic industrial policy that will support solar manufacturing and storage manufacturing here in the U.S. 

Already the Inflation Reduction Act has led First Solar, the biggest solar panel maker in the U.S, to spend $1.2 billion to increase its U.S manufacturing capacity by 75 percent. If we're going to continue to scale up the industry in order to address the climate crisis, we need to bring more of that manufacturing home, and we're doing it. 

But because China is ahead by so much, there is debate whether the U.S should try to invest money in the sector. The United States may not be able to actually really catch up with China as much as that it may just be able to ensure some of the skills so that it can do it itself. 

I remind people that energy is used in everything we do – our electricity, our transportation, our infrastructure, our communications, our agriculture – everything.

中文:

2022年8月通过的《通胀削减法案》希望加速转向清洁能源经济。 对太阳能制造业来说,这意味着鼓励增加电池板安装量的激励措施,以及在美国境内制造太阳能组件的税收抵免。

我们美国一直没有真正的产业政策来支持这种制造业,对吗?只有通过《通胀削减法案》,我们现在才有了支持美国太阳能制造业和储能制造业的国内产业政策。

《通胀削减法案》已经导致美国最大的太阳能电池板制造商First Solar投资12亿美元,将其国内制造能力提高75%。如果我们要继续扩大该行业规模来应对气候危机,我们需要带更多制造业回国,我们正在这样做。

但由于中国领先太多,人们争论美国是否应该试图在该行业投入资金。美国可能无法真正赶上中国,但它可能只需要确保掌握某些技能,以便自给自足。

我提醒大家,我们所做的一切都需要能源——我们的电力、交通、基础设施、通信、农业——一切。