Wrenches,
I agree with Bill Brooks on the risks of purchasing from smaller less established companies. From what I understand these modules are basically hand made and QC along with material selection can make a major difference in longevity. I worked in a Chinese foreign partnership for about five years and learned among other things that Chinese produced product reliability can vary drastically. We would purchase say maybe 5000 units from a manufacturer with perfect results and then purchase 5000 more a year later with 50% failure rate. Just my 2 cents. -August August Goers Luminalt Energy Corporation O: 415.564.7652 M: 415.559.1525 F: 650.244.9167 www.luminalt.com <http://www.luminalt.com/> [email protected] _____ From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Keith Cronin Sent: Monday, June 08, 2009 12:44 PM To: RE-wrenches Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Chinese solar cells and modules and pricing Andy, et al Good questions. The humanitarian one first. If we use a computer or cell phone, we are probably contributing to the problem daily as these devices are made there. The list of items we manu there is growing that we all seem to use in our daily existence. This is a difficult and personal values decision for every person to decide. The ugly word- globalization will be hard to remove from our lexicon, as we are all inextricably connected in some direct or indirect way. It is like the 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon, but perhaps now 5. Live in the Hawaiian village and it is perhaps 1 degree. On the economics equation- sure vote with your wallet to improve the balance of payments and perhaps your client base is willing to pay a premium for the made is usa solar panels, for example. Perhaps offering the client a choice deserves their attention and let them choose. Having the trade imbalance conversation might encourage them to choose differently, but this is a good topic for discussion. Whether or not we "pay" for the modules or put them on "credit" for x amount of months with interest (or if we are being offered interest free loans) until sold/installed etc. is about the relationship you develop with your counterpart. It is the "terms" that make the difference. A protectionism type of only buy from the usa will hurt our economy and the steel industry wants to do something similar, but its success is questionable. There are no clear answers to our sophisticated global economy, and as Adam Smith postulated in 1776, "the free market, while appearing chaotic and unrestrained, is actually guided to prodice the right amount and variety of goods by a so called "invisible hand"." My sense is the hand is not invisible anymore....... _____ From: Antony Tersol <[email protected]> To: RE-wrenches <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, June 8, 2009 9:09:15 AM Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Chinese solar cells and modules and pricing So if we should choose to ignore the humanitarian issues, and just approach it from a financial sense, how does sourcing Chinese modules improve our balance of payments? Date: Mon, 8 Jun 2009 11:13:15 -0700 (PDT) From: Keith Cronin <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Chinese solar cells and modules and pricing To: RE-wrenches <[email protected]> Message-ID: <[email protected]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" Joel Chinese quality will improve for sure and trust is something we ought to get used to. The Chinese own more US Treasuries than anyone breathing on this globe, so we are married at the wallet. If our government can have this type of relationship, it is only going to "grow" as time moves forward. I want to more call it a shotgun wedding of sorts- we both need each other and our parents (government) have decided it is going to be forever. Not to digress down an economics discussion, but their sovereign fund is deeply embedded in our dollars, even though the yuan has gained more in value over the last 4-5 years, hurting their investment in "US". Our foreign deficit to them will continue, as our national debt was 41% of the economy last year.....now this is unsustainable.......we are over leveraged as a society as a whole......... I wonder who the dictators are anymore? _______________________________________________ List sponsored by Home Power magazine List Address: [email protected] Options & settings: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List-Archive: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List rules & etiquette: www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm Check out participant bios: www.members.re-wrenches.org
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