$1 billion solar panel investment by Albanese a waste of money

As we’ve been writing for some time now, the very last thing Australia wants is to invent new industries to make use of staff, who’re turning into an more and more scarce commodity. Each side of politics need us to get into constructing and crewing nuclear submarines. Peter Dutton needs an entire new nuclear energy trade. And Labor is now throwing $1 billion at manufacturing photo voltaic panels — all a part of our effort to be a “renewable superpower”, and in addition as a result of, apparently, Australia invented the photo voltaic panels earlier than dropping management of the know-how, so we’re actually simply bringing photo voltaic panels “dwelling”.

The $1 billion price ticket is small in comparison with the tens of billions Dutton’s nuclear fantasy will price and insignificant in comparison with the waste of cash concerned in AUKUS, however Albanese’s photo voltaic panel funding is likely to be the dumbest of the lot.

Why? As a result of different, a lot larger governments, particularly China, are additionally subsidising photo voltaic panel manufacturing — leading to an enormous manufacturing glut proper on the time when Australia, belatedly, is becoming a member of within the stupidity.

A fortnight in the past there was a rush of studies about huge job cuts on the world’s greatest photo voltaic panel maker, LONGi Inexperienced Vitality Know-how of China — maybe as much as one-third of its workforce. LONGi rejected the studies and mentioned it was solely planning to chop 5% of its complete headcount of 80,000. The reason being the surge in international provides of photo voltaic vitality cells.

Because the Monetary Occasions famous, LONGi was a part of Xi Jinping’s quest for self-sufficiency and even mastery of essential renewable know-how sectors. As protectionism at all times does, that has prompted China’s rivals, the European Union and the US, to hit again each with their very own subsidies and with blocks on Chinese language exports, though these seem like doing little to curb China’s rising dominance of the photo voltaic panel sector. However there may be now an enormous international oversupply of photo voltaic panels.

Because of this, there’s by no means been a greater time to purchase photo voltaic panels — and by no means been a worse time to get into the manufacturing of them.

If, as Albanese says, the expenditure in photo voltaic panel manufacturing is about securing provide chains, that might simply be completed by redirecting that $1 billion to purchasing up Chinese language photo voltaic panels so low cost they’re now getting used as backyard options, and storing them to be used on Australian rooftops. However that lacks the political attraction of final week’s announcement within the Hunter Valley.

So what is going to we do with all of the Australian-manufactured photo voltaic panels? Power the native trade to make use of them, pushing up the prices of renewables at a time when they need to be falling?

Labor’s obsession with manufacturing — one which the Coalition for essentially the most half shares, regardless of Tony Abbott chasing the automotive trade out of Australia — continues to replicate each the ability of the (local weather denialist) Australian Employees Union on the fitting of the social gathering, and the Australian Manufacturing Employees Union on the left. It additionally displays the mindset of many not simply inside the union motion or Labor, however extra broadly, that manufacturing is someway a extra actual financial exercise than providers industries or extractive industries.

The story of the Australian financial system over the previous 30 years has been the rise and rise of extractive industries and repair industries. Our mining trade may be very, very environment friendly, and the iron ore trade is innovative technologically: it’s far superior in areas like remote-controlled trains and autonomous autos in comparison with different international locations — although that doesn’t cease it from being derided as merely “ripping filth out of the bottom”. Our agricultural trade, whereas not producing wherever close to as a lot when it comes to export values, has loved huge productiveness progress and now exports and produces way more, with far fewer staff and fewer water per unit of manufacturing, than it ever used to.

And our providers industries in areas like training and tourism are additionally huge export earners, reflecting Australia’s pure benefits in training and life-style.

In the meantime, like each different western nation, the proportion of the financial system and workforce dedicated to providers has grown massively, with the brand new frontier of employment being caring providers, from early childhood to previous age and in all places in between — all closely feminised workforces.

However ignore all that, Labor is saying let’s make investments extra in conventional male-dominated manufacturing, regardless of Australia being hopelessly uncompetitive in manufacturing prices and scale, and never having sufficient staff for the remainder of the financial system not to mention new industries.

And all of this, regardless of this being actually the worst time in historical past to spend money on photo voltaic panel manufacturing. Dumb, dumb, dumb.