Germany’s Bosch says it is abandoning its solar energy business because there’s no way to make it economically viable amid overcapacity and price pressure in the industry.
The engineering company said Friday that it will stop making components such as solar cells and wafers at the beginning of next year. It says it will sell a plant in Venissieux, France, and is abandoning a plan to build a new plant in Malaysia.
Bosch’s move comes after German industrial conglomerate Siemens last October announced plans to give up its loss-making solar business. The industry has been hit by falling subsidies, weaker sales and increasingly stiff price competition.
h/t Paul
It’s not entirely clear to me why the media can’t just say things straight up: “Bosch is exiting the solar business because solar can’t compete with conventional forms of electricity generation that are substantially less expensive and entirely reliable.” How hard would that be, really?
Instead, they use a form of weasel words: “…amid overcapacity and price pressure in the industry.” So, Bosch’s problem — and, by extension, solar’s problem — is a contingent one? “If capacity only fell and if cut-throat price competition within the industry only stopped, solar would be viable.” That’s pretty clearly the misleading implication of the opening statement of the article. And they keep pulling this sh** on themselves — and they think we don’t see it!
“..Bosch says it is abandoning its solar energy business because there’s no way to make it economically viable …”
Vell! Vee mist zee Ontario contract und wee now haff to close!
‘loss-making’ and ‘falling subsidies’.
Nicely encapsulates the economics of environmentalism.
Because it isn’t news anymore. It’s propaganda, and the people paying for it are the ones running the solar scam.
Once one finally accepts that news coverage is bought and paid for, with favours and prestige as well as money, then the whole thing makes perfect sense.
phamtom
spun news has been around for atleast 45 yrs that I’m personally aware of. These newies can’t write unbiassed news, and never will. I quit reading the toronto sun a few yrs back because it was a bible thumping rag, they’ve cleaned that up now, but the point being humans will do what humans do, function in a biassed way!!!!!
All these greedy companies knew they were participating in a world wide
rent seeking Marxist run enviro scam from day one. Perhaps when the next
enviro con game shows up they will just bribe politicians to go away.
More honest and cheaper for everyone in the long run.
The government cheese is running out as the solar subsidies are cut, and the rent seeking rats are all abandoning the ship. If they were really committed to the environment, they would continue with their solar business line, despite the losses.
The nations that Bosch or Siemens were depending on for subsidies are all set to lose any capacity for funding their efforts. The gravy train is set to derail, with minimal dollars available to anything outside the pension schemes the gov’t has put in place.
I’m not surprised by this, and applaud Bosch / Siemens for doing what’s economically sensible.
*plenty of Bosch gear at the homestead, of which I’m particularly happy with.
You need to remember that Bosch is technically a ‘Non- Profit’, so this is even more significant than usual.
David – the reason they chose baffle-gab is that they didn’t want it understood. There are some terms that only seem to come into existence because the host culture needs them – it’s part of how they look at the world. An example is schadenfreude – the German term for “taking pleasure in the misfortunes of another”. The best examples I’ve ever seen of this in English are baffle-gab and gobbledygook. Words used not to explain something, but to hinder explanation and disguise the purpose behind the words.
Says a lot about our culture that that’s one of our “identifying” terms, doesn’t it?
Of course this will mean Obama will have to sink more $ into solar energy development, he can`t let it fail (because he wants the US economy to fail.) So look forward to Solyndra 2, coming to a taxpayer near you….
Ian Vaughn = Even more explanatory, I think, is that Bosch is 90% owned by the Robert Bosch Stiftung (Foundation) which needs the “profits” to run its charitable works such as hospitals and educational efforts. If Bosch ends up in the Krankhaus, the Krankhaus can’t help patients. No profit = no operating funds for the hospital.
If only governments were that logical.