LookAtItGo123 t1_j5ay55t wrote on January 21, 2023 at 5:58 PM

Reply to comment by nintendomech in India installed almost 14 GW of solar in 2022 by Straight_Ad2258

I am a solar contractor myself. But considering that I'm from Singapore instead of the US its very different over here. Generally people stay in government housing apartment equavilents and the entire grid is owned and managed by the government so they pretty much got the monopoly on how much the selling back of electricity is worth.

Equipment wise, China and Taiwan is the answer. Even for brands like jinko where research is done in Germany, the entire manufacturing is done there. At the end of the day, the panels are pretty much made from sand into silicon crystals and I've sent a couple of different brands for lab testing since the tenders I'm working has it as a requirement, they all yielded results with less than 1% of variance.

Labour wise most of the workers here are migrant workers from places like blangadesh. Blue collar jobs are highly looked Down upon here and its valued cheaply as compared to places like nz or AU.

So yea overall a 20 panel system here in sg goes for around 20k sgd which is around 17k usd without a battery system. After factoring margins and logistics.

nintendomech t1_j5azga6 wrote on January 21, 2023 at 6:07 PM

It would almost be cheaper for me to fly a team over here with the parts and pay you all very well and still come out cheaper.

nintendomech t1_j5az0zn wrote on January 21, 2023 at 6:04 PM

Jesus FC. People be making like 50k profits. Thanks for the insight.

LookAtItGo123 t1_j5b0ry7 wrote on January 21, 2023 at 6:15 PM

Not entirely true, nor entirely false haha. I know USA still does manufacturing but if you looked globally, even China is starting to get out capitalismed. Myanmar is where the cheap labour is at now, though if we go further you'll just see child labour there. Welcome to late stage capitalism.

As for Labour, I believe Mexicans are your equavilents of cheap Labour. I believe in paying good honest money for good honest work, so I do it personally with my construction friends and share the profits equally after sales comms. A very rare thing where I'm from.

different places have different requirements. Your take out meals there generally fall within 10$ I believe while ours here is at 3$. At the end of the day I can't comment too much but USA ain't the friendliest place to start a business with all the overheads and taxes.

nintendomech t1_j5b3mm0 wrote on January 21, 2023 at 6:34 PM

We have a lot of Mexican labor in Washington state but where I live I’m some of the what feels like the first Mexican to the area. There are so few of us.