大象传媒

Solar power - governments across the world say they want it, so which firms are likely to end up with the business? And denting the dollar. The once all-powerful greenback seems now to be the punchbag of international finance. It may be down, but is it out?

With the election of President Obama in the US, the debate over global warming seemed mostly settled. Nowadays, there's pretty widespread consensus across the world that the problem is serious, and that action is urgently needed. So you might think a low-carbon alternative energy source like solar power would be a good business to be in. But not so.

Even in Germany - which pioneered alternative power in Europe and has subsidised solar generation for almost 20 years, companies are laying off employees. In Spain - a more recent convert - the pattern is similar. So what's going on? Jenny Chase follows Solar power for the London-based consultancy New Energy Finance:

China is a latecomer to the solar power business. But as with so many other manufactured products, it is starting to dominate the industry.

Stephen Chan is President of Global Sales and Marketing for Suntech Power - a Chinese company which is about to become the biggest manufacturer of solar power equipment in the world. Perhaps it already is. He says the impetus for this rapid growth came directly from the Chinese government.

Stephen Chan expects that, because of Suntech's new US base, his company will soon be benefiting from the American government's economic stimulus package too.

Dan Sullivan, Chief Executive of Sullivan Solar Power in sunny southern California, says imported Chinese solar panels are now undercutting the price of his panels by around 14%. And with companies like Suntech opening up in America, those imports may prove harder for America to resist on grounds of unfair trade. But Dan Sullivan is hoping his customers will still choose to buy American.

But because of what happened during the boom years, stopping the tide of imports from Asia is unlikely to be easy. Because, in recent years, a large number of the huge, highly expensive plants required to make the silicon chips needed for solar cells have been constructed. And as a result, Jenny Chase of New Energy Finance says, there's now massive, unsustainable global overcapacity. As the old American song goes, "something's got to give" But where?

Through history, nations' political power has been reflected in their currencies. The Roman denarius was once the currency of an empire which stretched from the Atlantic to the Caspian Sea. Spanish pieces of eight were legal tender across the globe from the Americas to modern day Indonesia. The reach of the pound sterling declined with collapse of the British empire. And after the Second World War, America's growing global dominance has been embodied by the dollar. But as our regular correspondent James Srodes says from Washington DC, that may be changing.

Show less