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

中國(guó)主導(dǎo)太陽(yáng)能領(lǐng)域。美國(guó)還有機(jī)會(huì)嗎? | 華爾街日?qǐng)?bào) 美國(guó)對(duì)抗中國(guó)

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:

第一批太陽(yáng)能電池板是在1954年由美國(guó)人發(fā)明的。然而,是中國(guó)更善于利用這項(xiàng)技術(shù)賺錢(qián)。中國(guó)是第一個(gè)意識(shí)到太陽(yáng)能電池板潛力的國(guó)家之一。中國(guó)實(shí)際上采取行動(dòng),在大規(guī)模層面將其商業(yè)化。

現(xiàn)在,中國(guó)控制著全球80%以上的太陽(yáng)能電池板供應(yīng)鏈,而美國(guó)基本上不制造太陽(yáng)能電池板生產(chǎn)所需的任何組件。因此,為了在太陽(yáng)能電池板制造業(yè)與中國(guó)有效競(jìng)爭(zhēng),美國(guó)正優(yōu)先從零開(kāi)始建立其供應(yīng)鏈。

如今,美國(guó)的太陽(yáng)能發(fā)電量不到中國(guó)的一半。在美國(guó)安裝的太陽(yáng)能電池板中,近四分之五是來(lái)自中國(guó)公司的。中國(guó)之所以在太陽(yáng)能電池板制造業(yè)占據(jù)絕對(duì)優(yōu)勢(shì),是因?yàn)樗麄冎髟字麄€(gè)全球供應(yīng)鏈。?

這是因?yàn)?近年來(lái),中國(guó)在太陽(yáng)能制造業(yè)上的投入幾乎是美國(guó)和歐盟Combined的10倍。在全球10大太陽(yáng)能制造商中,有7家是中國(guó)公司,只有1家是美國(guó)公司。

這一明顯差異反映在兩國(guó)的能源結(jié)構(gòu)中。根據(jù)美國(guó)能源信息署的數(shù)據(jù),太陽(yáng)能在中國(guó)總發(fā)電量中的比重為12%,而在美國(guó)僅占3.4%。

中國(guó)的確決心要沖向月球,走大規(guī)模發(fā)展,這對(duì)全世界產(chǎn)生了巨大影響,將清潔能源作為一個(gè)真正的選擇拖入視野,而不僅僅是玩具。

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:

美國(guó)在二氧化硅砂(用于太陽(yáng)能發(fā)電的主要礦物)方面占據(jù)優(yōu)勢(shì)。美國(guó)出口約4.7億美元價(jià)值的該礦物,而中國(guó)是世界上最大的二氧化硅砂進(jìn)口國(guó),主要從美國(guó)、澳大利亞和印度尼西亞進(jìn)口。

要制造太陽(yáng)能組件,二氧化硅砂需要提煉成高純硅,再制成硅錠切割成薄片。薄片切割成電池片,組件制造商然后將電池片裝進(jìn)框架,添加電路,制作成成品模塊或組件。

盡管美國(guó)擁有原材料,但它沒(méi)有用于太陽(yáng)能電池板生產(chǎn)的硅片或電池制造商。制造業(yè)不僅僅是樂(lè)高玩具。它意味著弄清楚如何更快、更高效、比別人做得更好地完成事情。

由于中國(guó)能夠以全球市場(chǎng)上顯著更低的成本生產(chǎn)太陽(yáng)能電池板,實(shí)際存在的少數(shù)美國(guó)太陽(yáng)能制造商高度依賴進(jìn)口中國(guó)獨(dú)有的組件,然后在國(guó)內(nèi)組裝。

中國(guó)之所以能夠?qū)嶋H降低成本,同時(shí)保持太陽(yáng)能電池板的質(zhì)量,是因?yàn)樗麄儧Q定要建設(shè)更大的工廠,遠(yuǎn)大于美國(guó)早期的規(guī)模。他們采用了新的制造方法,包括機(jī)器人,由于規(guī)模更大、人力參與更少,他們能夠?qū)崿F(xiàn)規(guī)模化生產(chǎn)。這實(shí)際上是中國(guó)的真正技能——如何制造產(chǎn)品,并使其成為商業(yè)化的產(chǎn)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月通過(guò)的《通脹削減法案》希望加速轉(zhuǎn)向清潔能源經(jīng)濟(jì)。 對(duì)太陽(yáng)能制造業(yè)來(lái)說(shuō),這意味著鼓勵(lì)增加電池板安裝量的激勵(lì)措施,以及在美國(guó)境內(nèi)制造太陽(yáng)能組件的稅收抵免。

我們美國(guó)一直沒(méi)有真正的產(chǎn)業(yè)政策來(lái)支持這種制造業(yè),對(duì)嗎?只有通過(guò)《通脹削減法案》,我們現(xiàn)在才有了支持美國(guó)太陽(yáng)能制造業(yè)和儲(chǔ)能制造業(yè)的國(guó)內(nèi)產(chǎn)業(yè)政策。

《通脹削減法案》已經(jīng)導(dǎo)致美國(guó)最大的太陽(yáng)能電池板制造商First Solar投資12億美元,將其國(guó)內(nèi)制造能力提高75%。如果我們要繼續(xù)擴(kuò)大該行業(yè)規(guī)模來(lái)應(yīng)對(duì)氣候危機(jī),我們需要帶更多制造業(yè)回國(guó),我們正在這樣做。

但由于中國(guó)領(lǐng)先太多,人們爭(zhēng)論美國(guó)是否應(yīng)該試圖在該行業(yè)投入資金。美國(guó)可能無(wú)法真正趕上中國(guó),但它可能只需要確保掌握某些技能,以便自給自足。

我提醒大家,我們所做的一切都需要能源——我們的電力、交通、基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施、通信、農(nóng)業(yè)——一切。