Best place to buy solar panels

[Red Sky]

Originally Posted by tarian

Greta has more followers on instagram than you stop being jealous

Add $.25 and you’ve got...ready? $.25.

Followers, lol.

[boatpoker]

Originally Posted by Lepke

Greta who?

Please stop, I'm tired of hearing about her.

[warrior 90]

Originally Posted by CatNewBee

That is not Trumps fault, US is able to produce the cells and the panels themselves, they developed the technology in the first place. The process can be automated and there are no tarifs on local products anyway, cheap labor is also widely available there. We should not rely on China alone to safe the world from global warming, climate crisis and whatever with solar and lithium batteries. China has no climate crisis btw, they take care of activists.

All Greta fans should start thinking before bashing the wrong people.

For the record: Germany had a Solar industry as the green wave transformation to renewables started, all companies producing solar panels are now out of business with massive lay offs because of cheap imports from China and NO TARIFS.

Interesting observations but it comes much worse.
With the blessing of the EU foreign trade policy companies were allowed to get a Made in the EU quality sticker as long as they produced 20% of the value in the EU. So now some slick companies made a killing and went to China to produce dirt cheap in the special almost tax free zones and what not ? with the only obligation... 51% of the company has to be owned by the Chinese. Of course that also means 51% of the patents and the know how or what in tech terms is called transfer of technology. After that they also sold them the machines to manufacture and then they sold them the tech and know how to manufacture those machines. But that´s only half the story. In order to make more money the goods were sold to some very greedy international trading companies with residence and tax free Offshore accounts before the goodies were sold back to the EU. So now one could ask what happened to the golden eggs ?
Of course now this bread for today and hungry tomorrow policy sooner or later starts to backfire. Whole industries disappeared and of course with them the jobs. Same saga happened all over the industrialized nations incl. the USA. This should have never been allowed. Of course now Greta and company is a little irritated with Trumpf because he wants to stop this kind of global BS and renegotiate a new definition of free trade and reverse this process of selling out the tech and individual property rights but as can be expected there is some serious opposition .... and for sure not only from the Chinese.
Well, I don´t believe the cruiser forum is the ideal place to discuss this kind of endless topics. However at least we could be reasonable and acknowledge that those cheap Chinese goods come with a price tag and somebody has to pay for it. You can´t have it both ways.

No wonder today everybody is so concerned and nervous about the climate change. Looks like there are some dark clouds on the horizon and I wonder how this whole thing will play out. At this point maybe we should start a new thread... what´s the difference between a blue water cruising boat and suitcase under the bed

[ramblinrod]

Originally Posted by warrior 90

Interesting observations but it comes much worse.
With the blessing of the EU foreign trade policy companies were allowed to get a Made in the EU quality sticker as long as they produced 20% of the value in the EU. So now some slick companies made a killing and went to China to produce dirt cheap in the special almost tax free zones and what not ? with the only obligation... 51% of the company has to be owned by the Chinese. Of course that also means 51% of the patents and the know how or what in tech terms is called transfer of technology. After that they also sold them the machines to manufacture and then they sold them the tech and know how to manufacture those machines. But that´s only half the story. In order to make more money the goods were sold to some very greedy international trading companies with residence and tax free Offshore accounts before the goodies were sold back to the EU. So now one could ask what happened to the golden eggs ?
Of course now this bread for today and hungry tomorrow policy sooner or later starts to backfire. Whole industries disappeared and of course with them the jobs. Same saga happened all over the industrialized nations incl. the USA. This should have never been allowed. Of course now Greta and company is a little irritated with Trumpf because he wants to stop this kind of global BS and renegotiate a new definition of free trade and reverse this process of selling out the tech and individual property rights but as can be expected there is some serious opposition .... and for sure not only from the Chinese.
Well, I don´t believe the cruiser forum is the ideal place to discuss this kind of endless topics. However at least we could be reasonable and acknowledge that those cheap Chinese goods come with a price tag and somebody has to pay for it. You can´t have it both ways.

No wonder today everybody is so concerned and nervous about the climate change. Looks like there are some dark clouds on the horizon and I wonder how this whole thing will play out. At this point maybe we should start a new thread... what´s the difference between a blue water cruising boat and suitcase under the bed

After watching so many North American corporations move production to underdeveloped countries with lesser regulations on human rights, employment, and environmental standards, to exploit cheap labour, and increase profit to shareholders (which the Corp executives had major holdings and options to exercise) at the expense of the North American middle class, I am glad to see the US government trying to take action and urge the Canadian government to do so as well. I just hope it’s not too late for my kids and grandkids, and wish they had nipped this at the bud long ago. I’ll gladly pay 100% more for non necessities if it means taking care of our future.

[mvweebles]

If the exam question here is where is the best retailer to buy solar panels, I had a good experience with Matt at www.ContinuousResources.com last year. Small outfit out of Price, Utah that does a lot with RVs. I purchased four 200W panels, and Battle Born LiFePO4 batteries, Magnum 3200 Charger/Inverter, and MPPT controller. Matt assisted in the wiring diagram and component sizing. Prices were about the lowest I could find on the web. No surprises. Only minor glitch was it sometimes took a day or two to get a response because he was in the field. Nice folks.

[thinwater]

Oh for heavens sake. Do you piss and moan about what other people are doing, or do you dig down and do better yourself? I was taught to knuckle down and figure out what I could do better.



You only grow when you are pushed.

[ramblinrod]

Originally Posted by thinwater

Oh for heavens sake. Do you piss and moan about what other people are doing, or do you dig down and do better yourself? I was taught to knuckle down and figure out what I could do better.



You only grow when you are pushed.

Sorry, I’ve just seen too many families struggle due to manufacturing layoffs making CEOs Uber riche.

One of the important elements of going forward is to learn from the errors of the past.

Sometimes truth hurts, and then some people resort to attacking the messenger.

[Budawang]

Originally Posted by thinwater

Oh for heavens sake. Do you piss and moan about what other people are doing, or do you dig down and do better yourself? I was taught to knuckle down and figure out what I could do better.



You only grow when you are pushed.

What? So everyone should quietly accept decades of poor government policy? You can be critical of government policy and do the best you can to improve your own condition. It's not a zero sum game.

[Larry T.]

Love it!!

[NPCampbell]

Originally Posted by ramblinrod

After watching so many North American corporations move production to underdeveloped countries with lesser regulations on human rights, employment, and environmental standards, to exploit cheap labour, and increase profit to shareholders (which the Corp executives had major holdings and options to exercise) at the expense of the North American middle class, I am glad to see the US government trying to take action and urge the Canadian government to do so as well. I just hope it’s not too late for my kids and grandkids, and wish they had nipped this at the bud long ago. I’ll gladly pay 100% more for non necessities if it means taking care of our future.

Ditto. I try to buy American as much as possible. However, Chinese solar panels aren't cheaper due to cheap labor, lack of environmental regulations or superhuman efficiency. It's due to simple market economics a-la 1970s Japan-style keiretsus.

The OP is propagating a typical TDS view of the tariff story. However, the tariffs on solar panels weren't started by Trump, they were started by Obama in 2012. Europe followed suit in 2013 and maintained the tariffs for 5 years. Trump raised the tariffs for good reason but the damage has already been done.

China poured $40+ billion of low interest loans and massive tax abatements into their solar industry back around 2010 supposedly to meet increasing local demand. This cranked up production, drastically lowered prices and created a worldwide glut of panels. As Chinese companies struggled to payback their soon-to-be-forgiven loans, they dumped their panels at below cost prices onto the world market, forcing US and European companies out of business. As many of the largest Chinese solar companies approached insolvency under their loan burdens they were bailed out.

After the maelstrom, China was left with debt free solar companies with very little worldwide competition. Had the the current tariffs been applied at the outset instead of the feckless 2-4% tariffs, worldwide competition might have been saved.

[Chotu]

So, um... Where's the best place to buy solar panels? Ha ha ha.

[Mr B]

Preston or Laverton, Victoria Australia, Fleabay.com, and FREE delivery,
2 x 250 watt hard panels, with 2 x 2 into one connectors, $324-00,
I have them on my Boat, They are very good panels as well,

Both companys have been in business over 10 years, Solar in OZ is very big time and very competitive,

The Lima Declaration, 1975 killed our industry, Google it,
A lot of countrys signed up to it,
It was done before the Internet started so very few people knew about it,
But it is biting hard now, As there is nothing left to sell off to overseas buyers,
Infrastucture being sold off also they lost the income that it all brought in,
So our taxes are going thru the roof to make up for the lost income,

[john61ct]

The inevitable trends are

average income wealth GDP per capita being equalized, so no advantages for citizens of earlier-developed nations just because of where they happen to be born, and

income / wealth being increasingly concentrated in an ever-shrinking tiny percentage of the population

Of those two, which do **you** think should be fought?

[CatNewBee]

For me the best place to buy solar and anything else is the Internet. You can compare prices, availability, brands and shipping costs. It almost always beats a local dealer.

[john61ct]

I very strongly disagree, good way to get real crap quality consumer-grade panels, especially trying to save money.

Depends on where you are of course.

If there are a lot of rooftop grid-tie installs going on in your area, picking up their surplus sub-pallet quantities from the site can be cheaper than just what your shipping would cost ordering from online.

And very likely to get a higher quality industrial grade product that is only sold by the pallet load, usually not even available to consumers.

Big projects and solar installer outfits know more and have higher standards, given warranties. insurance oversight, long-term performance standards in their contracts etc