Technological and financial limitations in the absence of government subsidies have dealt the solar industry a mortal blow as leading residential installer SolarCity has been forced to take extreme measures in reorganization, salary cuts and layoffs in remaining buoyant.
The company released the news Wednesday to investors and the public in the wake of suffering $55 million in net losses during the second quarter. Tesla recently acquired SolarCity for $2.6 billion.
While the market for the generation of alternative energy sources is growing, the constraints of the current solar technological infrastructure severely hinders the reality of efficiency and potential profits from a large-scale manufacturing front. According to a 2015 MIT study, a dearth of crucial raw materials couple with high assembly costs outweighs the existence of current solar ventures. In the US alone, only a fraction of a percent of the country’s energy production is generated by solar means. The study concludes that in absence of monumental fundraising efforts and momentous advances in innovation, the industry is doomed. Even with the miraculous fortune of ultimate success, the rigors of integration into the current grid from a competitive and political could be potentially daunting.
Although SolarCity (Tesla) owns the majority of the US residential solar market, without outside assistance, including the buyout and the reliance on Federal dollars, the company and competitors would be looking into the vortex of Chapter 11.
With the outlandish price point of specified manufacturing and mining techniques and the net cost of construction, at what point in the cost-benefit analysis research does one realize that a good theory on paper or a tablet does not always equate to viable technology or business venture? This notion coupled with the vacillating consensus of the “carbon footprint” debate, leads to the thought that maybe it is all a scam contrived and fueled by George Soros.
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