Instead, as an example, one of the largest manufacturer of solar panels in China originally came from Australia but moved his business due to government red tape and lack of assistance. I can't remember the name off the top of my head as it was 2-3 years ago when we had a different brand installed.
Might be Sam Yang who studied economics at Macquarie University in NSW and co-founded Suntech.
Or co-founder Shi Zhengrong who researched the technology at the University of NSW.
Currently solar panel makers are negotiating difficult times as they adjust to the problem of manufacturing oversupply.
They've joined those other industries that can't make profits for the same reason, like tv panel manufacturers and airlines.
Yang is anticipating the next research breakthrough which he thinks will be a game changer, cost efficient energy storage.
http://reneweconomy.com.au/2013/interview-hareon-ceo-sees-50gw-solar-in-china-within-years-17209
Quote Yang:
And most importantly of all, he says, solar manufacturers must offer a 25-year warranty on their product. Solar panels must work for 25 years, Yang said, otherwise it is not a renewable product at all.
As for the technology to watch, it's energy storage which Yang finds really exciting. I believe that energy storage technology, like any other technology will have a breakthrough. I am curiously expecting that, Yang told RenewEconomy.
Once this breakthrough happens, he says, that would really be a total revolution of this energy. That means every family can have their own independent power supply, an outcome Yang believes would be particularly fortunate for countries like Australia.
Edit:
For those that may not know about Shi Zhengrong and may be interested.
When Shi Zhengrong was born to a destitute rural family in eastern China in 1963, his parents were so poor they gave him up for adoption. Forty years later, after founding Suntech, the solar-panel maker, he was one of China’s richest men and widely celebrated as one of the top green entrepreneurs in the world.
However, over the past six months the fortunes of Mr Shi have fallen.
Mr Shi, or “Dr Shi” as he is known to Suntech employees, has been largely forced out the company he founded and now stands to lose much of his fortune because of the bankruptcy proceedings at Suntech’s main subsidiary. The bankruptcy, announced on Wednesday, marked a milestone for the painful decline of the Chinese solar industry, which has been struggling to stem losses amid a glut of overcapacity.
An exceptionally gifted student, Mr Shi won a scholarship to the University of New South Wales in Australia in the late 1980s. After earning his PhD he joined one of the country’s top solar cell research groups.
After more than a decade in Australia, during which he acquired Australian citizenship, Mr Shi received an offer from local officials in Wuxi, a town in eastern China not far from where he was born.
“They said, we need a scientist like you to come here and be a boss,” Mr Shi recalled in a 2009 interview with Chinese television. “I’d never thought of myself as a boss before.”
But a boss he became. Using start-up capital provided by the government of Wuxi, Mr Shi founded Suntech in 2001. The company seemed unstoppable. When Mr Shi took Suntech public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2005, its share price rose 41 per cent on the first day of trading. Two years later, the stock price had leapt more than fivefold, making Mr Shi one of the richest men in China. By 2011, thanks to Suntech’s low-cost production and cheap financing, the company had become the world’s largest panel maker by sales.
However, as the global market for solar panels collapsed, Suntech’s high debt levels left it more exposed than its peers. The company’s fall has been almost as precipitous as its rise. At the end of March 2012, it had $1.6bn in net debt and reported a net loss of more than $1bn for the previous year. In September, it received a delisting warning from the New York Stock Exchange.
As Suntech struggled to turn round, Mr Shi was gradually pushed out of his roles at the company. In August he stepped down as chief executive and became chief strategy officer. In March, the board announced that it had also removed him as chairman and appointed someone else in his place. In a rare display of public acrimony, Mr Shi issued a statement saying that the board’s move was “unlawful” and that he was still chairman.
Since then, Mr Shi has largely disappeared from public view. The Shanghai Securities News, a prominent Chinese newspaper, reported on Friday that his movements were being restricted and that he was not allowed to leave the country pending an investigation related to his role at Suntech. Suntech declined to comment.
For China’s former solar star, there could be dark times ahead.
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/3647937a-92da-11e2-9593-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2lzKe4d16
