Episode Details
Back to Episodes
How One Trade Rule Cut Solar Panel Costs by 90 Percent
Description
Episode 79 of Global Trade with Fexingo: Lucas and Luna dig into the single trade rule that slashed solar panel prices by 90 percent over two decades. They trace how the WTO's Information Technology Agreement, originally designed for computers, accidentally created a global solar manufacturing boom. The hosts walk through how a tariff elimination on 'semiconductor manufacturing equipment' unlocked Chinese polysilicon production, drove down module prices from $4 per watt in 2008 to under 25 cents today, and reshaped the entire clean energy supply chain. They also discuss the rule's unintended consequence: near-total dependence on Chinese factories, and whether the WTO's new environmental goods talks can fix the imbalance. A focused, number-driven episode about how one paragraph in a 1996 treaty changed the economics of the sun.