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Comment by PorciiVorbesc | Hacker News Reader

  So what if all our oil comes from the middle east?

  So what if all our gas comes from Russia?

  So what if all chips are made in Taiwan?

  So what if all mobile platforms are from the US?

Hopefully the penny will start to drop. Any minute now.

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You burn a barrel of oil once. A solar panel lasts for 20+ years. After you have installed it, if China announces they will no longer sell new ones - you have two decades of lead time to start building your own domestically.

Either the panels are purchased piecemeal, in which case some have to be replaced every year as your rolling stock fail, or they're replaced in large batches - which would be incredibly predictable, suggesting China would not fill one massive order and then say "No more", assuming they're trying to inflict pain

Either way though, you don't have 20 years to get up to speed.

No you don’t.

You have 20 years minus one day, as every day elapses.

Existing installed solar capacity is degrading at one day per day.

They have 25 year warranty with performance guarantee of 92%. After 25 years, it will continue to work fine, 8% lower output is perfectly acceptable. Most likely will last 50 years or more.

There is no product on the planet that has a a multi decade warranty with this kind of performance guarantee.

Good luck having that warranty honoured in 10 years.

But we are not buying oil or gas. We are buying hardware that will generate electricity for decades.

I do hope the US turns around. As I see it, we (western countries) have aligned values and it's better for us all (US included) to stick together.

Except you burn the oil once and keep the solar panel and batteries for one or two decades

You burn a battery only once, too.

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