Article • Dean Baker’s Beat the Press
NYT Says Europe Can Meet Its Solar Manufacturing Targets by Spending Just Over 0.1 Percent of GDP

Article • Dean Baker’s Beat the Press
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The NYT did a classic “really big number” move when in an article on Europe’s energy needs. It told readers:
“But major challenges remain. Solar power, in particular, has supply chain risks of its own. China has a near-monopoly on the raw materials and technical expertise to produce photovoltaic cells for solar panels. An analysis from Bloomberg BNEF found it would take nearly $150 billion for Europe to build the plants to manufacture enough solar capacity and storage to meet demand by 2030.”
Since it’s possible that some NYT readers don’t have a good idea of what the European Union’s GDP will be over the next seven years, the IMF projections tell us it should be well over $100 trillion. That means that the projected cost of building solar manufacturing facilities will be a bit more than 0.1 percent of its GDP over this period.