Study shows that factors other than wages dominate trends in photovoltaic costs, raising the prospect of competitive manufacturing anywhere.
It's widely believed that China is the world's dominant manufacturer of solar panels because of its low labor costs and strong government support. But a new study by researchers at MIT and the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) shows that other factors are actually more significant -- suggesting that the United States could once again become cost-competitive in photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing.