Long time readers will not be surprised that this reminds me of a story.
From Business Insider via Yahoo Finance, January 16:
- The US and European Union are seeing solar panels pile up amid a massive oversupply, the IEA says.
- This has slashed prices by nearly half in 2023, and prices are set to continue dropping.
- "Manufacturers are focusing on cost-cutting and innovation," the International Energy Agency wrote.
The US and European Union are seeing large stockpiles of solar panels after soaring manufacturing capacity fueled a substantial oversupply, the International Energy Agency has reported.
At the end of last year, an estimated 45 gigawatts of modules in the US and 90 gigawatts in the EU had piled up, nearly twice the forecast installations for 2024, the report said.
The glut sent prices down nearly 50% in 2023 as manufacturing levels stood three times above those seen in 2021, and the IEA said it saw the oversupply continuing.
"Based on the manufacturing projects pipeline, it will expand to over 1,100 GW in 2024 and 1,300 GW in 2028, staying at more than double annual PV installations over the forecast period," the report said.
Though other countries — namely the US, India, and the ASEAN region — are working to improve their output, China is set to account for 85% of the expansion of solar-module manufacturing capacity by 2028. But further supply-chain expansions aren't expected to be met with growing demand, and global manufacturing-utilization rates are set to drop.
They have already plummeted 60% in 2023 and could drop under 40% through the next four years, according to the report....
....MUCH MORE
Completely unrelated except in an ADDled mind:
"Ironically, Milk Futures Are Not Very Liquid"
Back in 2010 we had a post, "CME Group expands dairy complex with cheese futures" which I intro'd with:
Years ago I heard of a Chicago company that made a whey-based artificial cheese.
Apparently the operation was headed by a mad scientist type who had come up with the formula but had no marketing ability.
He was producing the stuff and not selling any, converting all the investors cash into this "analog" goop and storing it in Chicago area warehouses.
Then the Chernobyl reactor blew, the price of whey skyrocketed, I've no idea what the connection was, the company went broke and the receivers opened the warehouses to find tons of this 'cheeze', semi-molten in the summer heat.
That's what I thought of when I saw this story, tons of the stuff oozing out of bonded warehouses. No connection of course, just a visual....
