Covered at Reason 24/7: China's Solar Bubble Bursts

American solar economy supporters like to point the finger at China solar panel producer Suntech for the industry's troubles. They've flooded the market with cheap, subsidized solar panels, making it impossible for American companies to compete. And that's why all those bankruptcies of American companies (many of them subsidized with taxpayer dollars) happened.

Well, now Suntech has problems of its own.

Agence France-Presse reports:

Chinese solar panel giant Suntech Power announced Monday that it was in default on its debt after failing to make a payment on $541 million worth of bonds.

One of the world's top two solar cell and panel producers, targeted last year by US trade sanctions, Suntech said it had already entered an agreement with 60 percent of the bond holders to hold off legal claims while a debt restructuring can be negotiated.

The non-payment on the bonds triggered cross-default clauses with other lenders, putting Suntech in default on debt to the International Finance Corp. and Chinese domestic lenders.

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Comments

[SumpTump]

Dude this just makes a ll kinds of crazy sense.

http://www.WebAnon.da.bz

[fish]

You've changed FOE! You've changed.

[Paul.]

We should rename Fist of Etiquette to First of Etiquette.

[Fist of Etiquette]

YOU DON'T OWN ME.

[A Secret Band of Robbers]

Not until the hostile takeover is finalized.

[Drave Robber]

I'm not part of this enterprise.

[A Secret Band of Robbers]

For now.

[Fatty Bolger]

Never happen. FOE is his own poison pill.

[Fist of Etiquette]

It's implanted in one of my molars.

[LTC(ret) John]

"The tooth, remember the tooth!"

/Dr. Yueh

[C. Anacreon]

Hey SumpTump -- I've got your cousin buried in my basement -- SumpPump. See if you can do anything about it!! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!

[neoteny]

Nice!

[LTC(ret) John]

Seconded.

He should make a ransom demand of 1,000,000 bitcoin.

[Episiarch]

Invest in solar! It's the technology of the future!

[sloopyinca]

We need some of these advocates for solar power to go on a fact-finding mission to the source and let us know what they find.

[Raven Nation]

Hmm, I settle for them observing the source from Mercury.

[Episiarch]

I'd like to see their wide portfolio of investments in solar companies.

[Francisco d Anconia]

Invest in solar! It's the technology of the future!

That and replicators, cold fusion and warp drives.

[Mechafenris]

Isn't more like "Invest in solar! Please!!"

[Mechafenris]

Sorry... new keyboard: Isn't IT more like:

[sloopyinca]

Does this open the door to the Feds pumping more money into Solyndra? After all, they blamed their failure on the sneaky little yellow bastards.

Oh wait, they said the Chinese had depressed the market, causing them to fail, when there was really a bubble.

Politicians are assholes.

[Fist of Etiquette]

China's solar bubble burst? Isn't that how Godzilla was created in the first place? And Suntech? Really? I would call my company Ra Power. (Say it out loud; I think you'll be pleasantly surprised!)

[mr lizard]

Rape hour?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Exactly. Doesn't that just scream market dominance?

[mr lizard]

Well as long as it screams something then we know STEVE SMITH is doing it right.

[Gojira]

IT WASN'T SOLAR POWER IT WAS THE ATOM BOMB AND I'M NOT CHINESE YOU FUCKING RACIST!

[Shine on, Nikki Diamond]

Yes you are. And I saw your dig at me in the other thread after I left, too.

[Gojira]

Thank god, I was worried a perfectly good insult had gone to waste.

[Fist of Etiquette]

History shows again and again how nature points up the folly of man.

[Drave Robber]

AND I'M NOT CHINESE

iceberg, Goldberg - what's the difference?

[sloopyinca]

Say it out loud

OK. Laaaa Power!

/Chinese investor

[Sevo]

Laaci...
Naah. Too easy.

[Anonymous Coward]

Show of hands: Who didn't see this coming?

*Waits eagerly to point and laugh*

[Francisco d Anconia]

Barack Obama?

[Paul.]

*sigh*

[Paul.]

Obama?

[Hugh Akston]

Obama?

[grey]

Barack Hussein Obama?

[mr lizard]

CALPINE?

[Suthenboy]

You are all wrong. That piece of shit saw it coming as sure as I see the sun is coming up in the morning. He just didnt care. It was a perfect excuse to funnel billions to his cronies, and he figured they would finish looting the treasury long before the shit hit the fan.

What a fucking piece of shit he is.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Bizzaro Nostradamus.

[StinkEye]

~47% of the American populace?

[Sevo]

StinkEye| 3.18.13 @ 8:24PM |#
"~47% of the American populace?"
Was that Obozo's winning percentage?

[StinkEye]

Well, Obamugabe managed about ~27.5% of eligible voters vs. Mittens at about 25%. 48.5% for Mittens vs. 51.5% O (+/- 0.5%) was the final tally of the popular vote if I recall correctly. Obviously a mandate for 'The One?'.

[Sevo]

CALPERS.
And they don't see it happening, either.

[Paul.]

What's that solar company that Shrike is always touting as up over 9,000,000,000%?

[Sevo]

Whatever it is, go short.

[Jordan]

First Solar. Earnings per share still negative.

[StinkEye]

"First Solar. Earnings per share still negative."

Sooo, you have to pay First Solar to keep your shares? Seems...Counterintuitive...

[TSR21]

Hey??!!
Wasn't there a guy on the NYT that said these Chinese fellows were infallible at this shit, tall guy, well groomed mustache, as full of crap as the ocean is deep. can anyone help me out here?

[Jerry on the boat]

LOL. China's Sunshine Boys.

[TSR21]

THATS the fucktard thanks Jerry.

[Flatulent Monkey]

Ugh... I should of look at the URL before I clicked. I would have saved myself from the urge to projectile vomit.

[Sevo]

OT:
For about $300 and a cell phone and you can drone-spy on anything you can see from the air:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jIfPHFkXHI

[Fatty Bolger]

How much for the Hellfire missile attachment?

[Sevo]

Fatty, you can look around the youtube sites for RC equipment and get a good idea it's not long.
Why missiles? Why not a half-stick of dynamite and a 'suicide-bomber' drone? The Fedgov spends millions trying to do what bright kids in the back yard do before someone on the city council decides to outlaw it.

[DesigNate]

So what you're telling me is that the majority of the fedgov is less intelligent and less imaginative than a fourth grader.

[Suthenboy]

I think it was our resident sage Tony who said we should be throwing every possible resource into solar power development. Why cant we listen to our betters? What is wrong with us? When will we learn?

[Francisco d Anconia]

Yeah, where is Tony? He ALWAYS chimes in on these solarwindgreenglogalwarmingalternativeenergy threads?

[DesigNate]

He won't show his slimy ass because this article presents facts that disprove his asinine word view.

[Sevo]

DesigNate| 3.18.13 @ 8:13PM |#
"He won't show his slimy ass because this article presents facts that disprove his asinine word view."

There is a theory that shithead is a sock of one of the editors employed to increase hits. I'm not convinced.
Personally, I'm very comfortable with the claim that he's a run-of-the-mill lefty idiot. I live in SF and deal with them on a regular, not to say daily, basis.
Regardless, facts contrary to his views won't stop him from posting; the only way he's differentiated from the standard-issue lefty is his consummate skill at lying and general mendacity. He'll post offering whatever lies, misdirection, and innuendo he hopes might be accepted.

[Fatty Bolger]

I think there was once a real Tony, but he's been replaced by a sock puppet (possibly one of the regulars).

[Suthenboy]

The theory of Tony being one of the editors increasing hits seems sound to me.

I dont live in SF, so it seems impossible to me sometimes that anyone could really be that stupid and removed from reality and still breath on their own.

Other times he enrages me because I know, even if it is an act, it is stolen from the mouths of actual lefties.

[Fatty Bolger]

If an editor wants more hits, he should try to coerce MNG out of retirement. MNG and John could do a 1000+ comment thread almost by themselves.

[A Secret Band of Robbers]

Or maybe offer White Indian a share of the ad revenue wampum?

[Drave Robber]

1. I think there's a real Tony, and it has been the same Tony all along.
2. I think said Tony possesses more reading comprehension skills than he would like to show. I mean, he comprehends more than he pretends to.
3. I believe said Tony might be a libertarian-to-liberal convert. (yes, I've seen this happening.)

Of course, all of the above are my educated drunk guesses.

[Suthenboy]

" I believe said Tony might be a libertarian-to-liberal convert. (yes, I've seen this happening.)"

I had to give up the booze, so for me that last one strains credulity. Stranger things have happened, I suppose.

[Drave Robber]

In Europe, one only needs to switch definitions of 'liberal'. European 'liberal' is 'classical liberal', and American 'liberal' is, well, 'liberal'.

That switch occurred to a former friend of mine. (not that he became an enemy - we simply have had no communication for ~eight years)

[Suthenboy]

" He'll post offering whatever lies, misdirection, and innuendo he hopes might be accepted."

And yet, in all this time, I am not aware of a single convert to his view. Not. One.

Perhaps Drave is partially correct with his hypothesis #3; Libertarian turned crazy?

[A Secret Band of Robbers]

Remember back when we had MNG, and although he was a liberal, he was an interesting opposing viewpoint and hadn't become compulsively contrarian yet? I do. I miss those days.

I, for one, miss MarcyG already. She was a good one.

[jesse.in.mb]

Has Marcy already been memory holed?

[A Secret Band of Robbers]

I doubt she'll be back. She lacked fortitude.

[jesse.in.mb]

Really? The first comment I saw of hers was "I'm back Teapublicans" I had just assumed she was a sockpuppet account.

[Sevo]

A Secret Band of Robbers| 3.18.13 @ 9:43PM |#
"Remember back when we had MNG, and although he was a liberal, he was an interesting opposing viewpoint and hadn't become compulsively contrarian yet?"

Disagreed.
MNG was not only contrarily but very skillful at sophistry.
MNG's "arguments" took entirely too much time to parse into various categories; if you wanted word games; you found it.

[DesigNate]

I'm reasonably sure he's a sock, but it's not like the lefty bullshit he spews isn't what progtards actually believe.

[Ken Shultz]

It's hard to believe that a heavily subsidized company(that doesn't need to be well managed to turn a profit) could end up being so mismanaged.

They seem to have engaged in dumping so heavily, to drive the competition out of the market, that they ended up driving themselves out of the market, too!

I guess when you're justifying getting those subsidies by saying that you need them to keep prices down, it's hard to raise prices back up--when you should--and keep those subsidies coming in. The government's gonna say, "If you're raising your prices, then why do you need subsidies?".

[Mad Scientist]

I fell certain that somehow this is all Booosh's fault.

[Mad Scientist]

Or, I feel certain...whichever.

[DesigNate]

You fell right into Bush's trap. Hahahahaha

[sarcasmic]

Two words: ha ha!

[Bingo]

WTF is it with leftists and passive ways of generating power? It's like some bizarro cult-like fixation on an aesthetic value of having Mother Gaia create power for you.

Like, you could come up with some scifi "anti-grav vacuum particle" power generation that produces no emissions and no waste and the green idiots would STILL be opposed to it if it requires any sort of large facility.

You don't see the morons pushing for research into LFTR or anything that's actually a feasible clean power source. It's like they want to litter the countryside with ineffective farms of panels and gigantic windmills.

[Drave Robber]

WTF is it with leftists and passive ways of generating power?

I've yet to see a leftist seriously interested in solar desalination, for example. It seems they're only interested in processes plugged into the Greater Grid of Good.

[Bingo]

Yeah, it's not like Africa gets a buttload of sunlight and has a massive problem with clean water.

Shit like that makes me think they're only interested in creating communal feel-good activity instead of actually, you know, helping people.

Because they're a bunch of control freak pussies is probably why.

[Drave Robber]

Yeah. What I mean is that passive generation isn't necessarily bad. I might be an efficiency freak but I still realize that a device that overnight gives you a liter of clean water in the middle of the dessert needs to be cheap, lightweight and durable - and efficiency doesn't really matter.

[Drave Robber]

overnight

I hope the respectable public understands half of my brain is busy with condensers. 🙂

[Ted S.]

The other half was busy with dessert. :-p

[Fatty Bolger]

Speaking of which:

Lockheed Martin Achieves Patent for Perforene? Filtration Solution, Moves Closer to Affordable Water Desalination

The Perforene membrane was developed by placing holes that are one nanometer or less in a graphene membrane. These holes are small enough to trap the ions while dramatically improving the flow-through of water molecules, reducing clogging and pressure on the membrane.
At only one atom thick, graphene is both strong and durable, making it more effective at sea water desalination at a fraction of the cost of industry-standard reverse osmosis systems.

It's graphene based, so I don't think they know how to mass produce it yet. Promising, though.

[Drave Robber]

It's graphene based, so I don't think they know how to mass produce it yet.

s/mass produce/make?
Does U.S. patent law (which IANAL expert of) require demonstration at all?

I saw this the other day, immediately followed by comments like "this violates x law of thermodynamics" etc.; haven't really researched the issue myself yet.

[Fatty Bolger]

Does U.S. patent law (which IANAL expert of) require demonstration at all?

Not since the 1800's.

[Cyto]

It shouldn't violate any laws of physics - it is just reverse osmosis. Ramp up the pressure on one side of the membrane and you force water out the other side against the osmotic pressure gradient. It takes energy to move water into a lower entropy level - no magic fairy dust here.

[Mad Scientist]

The left is not interested in clean power. They're interested in making your life as miserable as possible so that you need their "help." Legitimately clean, cheap power would cause widespread panic on the left.

[HazelMeade]

They want you to live like it was pre-industrial England. All power is produced by windmills and solar panels, everyone rides and bike, and clothing is handmade by local artisans.

Clean, cheap energy would spoil that by allowing people to continue to own cars and air conditioners and cheap mass produced goods.

[Francisco d Anconia]

WTF is it with leftists and passive ways of generating power?

What? You mean you are surprised that they are looking for something for nothing?

[OldMexican]

China's Solar Bubble Bursts

Ha-ha!

[Almanian!]

Alas, it's dark humor

They drove Suntech into the DARK! I blame the GOP!

Also, lacist.

And fried chicken.

And fuck Katy Perry. I-I-I-I-I-I mean....no, I mean Katy Perry.

That is all.

[HazelMeade]

Ahh, the fun.

I laughed when Solyndra went broke. I laughed harder when they imposed trade sanctions on Chinese solar panels to protect America's "green jobs". And now I get to laugh even more when China's solar bubble bursts.

It's almost like leftists have no idea how economics works.