links for 2011-02-14

In a new study, the industry estimates that the permit dance adds an average of $2,500 in costs to each installation, and streamlining things could provide a $1 billion stimulus to the residential and commercial solar power market over the next five years.

I would argue that three factors largely explain our collective failure: specialization, the difficulty of forecasting, and the disengagement of much of the profession from the real world…disengagement from short-term developments leads academic economists to ignore medium-term trends that they can address. If so, the true reason why academics missed the crisis could be far more mundane than inadequate models, ideological blindness, or corruption and thus far more worrisome; many simply were not paying attention!

China, the world’s biggest electricity consumer, is figuring out how to capture a larger share of the solar-energy market without losing money…European nations are trimming subsidies and studying limits on permits. The moves respond to a plunge in solar panel prices and are aimed at keeping plant operators from earning too much at the expense of consumers who must pay the above-market rates.

The government will spend at least a year studying Europe’s system of paying above-market prices for solar power before deciding if there’s a better way to spur clean-energy plants across China, said Wu Dacheng, an adviser to national power regulators. The delay has stalled projects planned on Chinese soil by developers such as First Solar Inc. of the U.S.

It's taken a while to get there, but Willard & Kelsey Solar Group LLC contends it is on the verge of a breakthrough. After nearly three years of delays in its announced production schedule, the Perrysburg solar panel manufacturer started commercial production last month…Willard & Kelsey asserts that its production speed and proprietary coating process, along with other patented technology, will make the difference in its pricing. First Solar coats its panels horizontally; Willard & Kelsey coats its vertically, allowing for faster production and lower costs, Mr. Cicak said. Mr. Cicak, who worked with First Solar founder Harold McMaster in the 1980s and 1990s, also said his ties to First Solar's early history provide insight that can help Willard & Kelsey compete…