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Originally posted by pahoated

The irony is that it takes huge amounts of electricity to manufacture solar panels and that the manufacturers of solar panels know solar panels don't produce enough or stable, continuous power, so they have to use other sources of stable, base load power for solar power manufacturing. The reality is that the majority of electricity is still produced by burning coal. In China, they burn raw coal with no scrubbing or filtering. So, this is the result of bringing down the price of solar panel manufacturing:

http://timeglobalspin.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/462905499.jpg?w=720&h=480&crop=1

http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/20/health/pollution-china-pnas/
China's exports linked to western U.S. air pollution

That is why Solar World, a German company, is manufacturing solar panels in Oregon, because of "cheap" hydroelectric power. Solar panels are great and they are part of the alternative energy solution. However, the government protection (subsidies, tax breaks) of this one power source is highly biased and skewed, causing other more promising sources to be underfunded and supported. Germany, a huge leader in solar panels, has decided to discontinue government subsidies for solar panels and it is resulting in massive layoffs and bankrupt solar panel manufacturer companies. If it is artificially propped up, then that needs to be exposed.

"This island Hawaii on this island Earth"

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