Why is the high oil price lowering solar stock prices?

xscharm answered one year ago …

high price of oil is depressing the entire U.S. economy, which lowers the amount of capital available for inv The estment in stocks. We're way past cheap oil and almost certainly past 'peak oil' and the oil producers know it. They have little incentive to lower petrol prices and they all hate the U.S. (well, except Canada and even Canada's getting cozy with China.) Those with U.S. investments may think their oil profits far outweigh their U.S. investment profits. So solar stocks are depressed but way less than some sectors such as housing which is, itself, a segment of the solar market. Investors don't see in the short term any light at the end of the energy tunnel.
The dollar's continuing devaluation will stop at some point, probably when oil prices find a plateau. U.S. solar developers will then see their foreign markets grow more slowly as the cost of American products in foreign currencies increases. (OK, it's a leap to tie dollar optimism to solar stock price depression.)
Solar (and wind, water, nuclear, coal, geothermal, etc) energies compete with oil with increasing effect so oil companies have a duty to stockholders to foil solar (and other "alternative energy") progress where they can. ( If you know any Congressman, suggest some legislation whereby buying and shelving competing technologies becomes a capital crime.) Failed oilman George W. Bush's oil patch pals were milling for, solar pops up on their radar and suddenly the BLM discovers here-to-fore unknown environmental effects of large solar arrays in the desert and shuts off federal funding of solar projects for two years.
ExxonMobil spends more buying back its stock than it spends on exploration, a strange policy required by its focus on short-term profits rather the long-term health of its company (or the stability of the entire industrialized world.) Big Oil as we know it may very well morph into Big Solar as its oil lifeblood becomes economically non-viable and it has to find another product. Shell has gained a little cred in solar and BP is at least making sounds about it.
Say you had $600 billion that hadn't been poured down an Iraqi rathole.
You could equip every house in America with solar cells....
You could build solar-concentrating power plants producing 100 gigawatts of electricity, enough for 40 million houses (unless the BLM notices....)
You could fund enough R&D in solar and other "alternative" energies to get us off our oil dependency....