Duties proposed by an anonymous group of petitioners could cause the U.S. solar industry to miss out on 18 GW of solar deployment by 2023, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA).
The petitions now before the Department of Commerce would create 50% to 250% taxes on imports of crystalline silicon photovoltaic (CSPV) panels and cells from Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand. The petitioners allege some companies are avoiding anti-dumping (AD) and countervailing duties (CVD) imposed on China in 2012. The three targeted countries account for 80% of all panel imports to the United States.
Two hundred American solar companies sent a letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo outlining the impact these duties could have on the livelihoods of 231,000 U.S. solar workers and on the nation’s efforts to fight climate change. The signatories include manufacturers, developers, installers, financiers and service providers from across the solar supply chain.
“I cannot overstate the dire threat that these reckless petitions are imposing on hundreds of thousands of American families,” said Abigail Ross Hopper, SEIA president and CEO. “The anonymous petitioners are asking the Department of Commerce to not only misinterpret U.S. law, but also overturn a decade of department decisions in solar trade cases, all to benefit a few anonymous petitioners at the expense of the entire U.S. solar economy. We urge Commerce to use its discretion and dismiss these frivolous petitions.”
The potentially 18 GW of lost solar deployment is equivalent to the amount of solar capacity installed in all of U.S. history prior to 2015.
Wood Mackenzie forecasts the U.S. will install roughly 30 GW of new solar capacity in 2022 and 33 GW in 2023. The forecasts, which appear in the Solar Market Insight Q3 2021 report, are short of the pace needed to reach President Joe Biden’s decarbonization target for 2035 and implementing these duties could prevent addressing climate change domestically. The report also notes that recent trade actions, like the AD/CVD circumvention petition, could exacerbate supply chain constraints and increase solar prices.
The letter makes the case that the anonymous solar tariff petitions are based on a false premise that manufacturing done in Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand is “minor and insignificant,” and that cells and panels are predominantly made in China and passed through the targeted nations.
News item from SEIA
When the industry was young around 2005 to 2007 the message from SEIA (particulary from Rhone Resch at that time) was heavy on made in USA and growing a domestic solar manufacturing. As the industry got its legs that emphasis faded. Over my 30 year career I’ve seen results of many bad trade deals touted by so many politicians as good. We’ve seen massive offshoring of domestic manufacturing, and exploding trade and federal government trade deficits. President Trump was the first politician in my adult life to finally speak out on this issue and attempt to address this (unlike lip service of so many others).
There is a massive energy expenditure by shuttering local manufacturing, disrupting families and communities, re-building new manufacturing in foreign countries, powering those factories with less efficient and dirtier power resources, packing products on ships and transporting across oceans in vessels that burn dirty fuel oil, and then finally by truck on our crowded freeways and interstates. It would be interesting to know the amount of energy expenditure over the past 30 years due to the offshoring of a major portion of the U.S. manufacturing sector. I wonder how many GigaWatts of new solar capacity is required just to offset. We’ve built this fragile supply chain and pay the price for this in more ways than one, and will for years to come, until we prioritize re-localizing.
We need a robust solar panel manufacturing sector in this country and should prioritize. If industry growth needs to slow a bit while it recalibrates a strong domestic solar panel manufacturing base then we should find solutions for this with least disruption as possible. It’s what we need to do to avoid more likely disruption from other future events and geopolitics.
Great piece on helping shed some light on how one person‘s great idea that seems like it’s going to help a few people can actually have a drastically negative impact on a much larger group. Well American solar manufacturers could seemingly benefit from this a very small percentage of American installed solar come from American solar panels. The shines a light on the need to not cripple the solar industry with unneeded tariffs and fees. Thanks for writing!
The attempt to “catch” China in the solar business by mandating US panels is 20 years too late. Even U.S. made panels have Chinese cells, because we have not invested in the required robotics to make the cells. Germany is well ahead of the U.S. and India is catching up quickly.
Until you have a Congress willing to commit to renewables and invest in the R&D, tax credits and training, then we are the mouse in the wheel.
We buy billions of dollars of other products from many other countries. Let’s incentivize U.S. consumers to install solar and train our U.S. citizens to install the products. Half the cost of an installation is in labor and other associated materials which can come from the U.S.
Half is better than none. With these tariffs, there will be none.
I think it is embarrassment and a disgrace that the solar panel manufacturers in the US shut down and set up manufacturing in China. I think there should be a tariff of imported solar products so we could have US made again.
“The petitions now before the Department of Commerce would create 50% to 250% taxes on imports of crystalline silicon photovoltaic (CSPV) panels and cells from Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand. The petitioners allege some companies are avoiding anti-dumping (AD) and countervailing duties (CVD) imposed on China in 2012. The three targeted countries account for 80% of all panel imports to the United States.”
HOW arrogant, that these entities actually “think” import taxes of foreign products makes ANY difference when China can still choose to subsidize the solar PV industry and the satellite manufacturing facilities in other countries. The U.S. represents a population of about 330 million, maybe less with the overall effects of Covid-19, keep in mind as Hospital ICUs fill those with conditions like Cancer, heart, and pulmonary disease are being turned away from emergency care and these folks are statistics that are not tallied with the Covid-19 deaths. At that China doesn’t need the U.S. to sell product to and as of now, France might just buy any wind turbines and solar PV panels cheap from China instead of their old trading partner the U.S., it figures France is of the mind that the U.S. owes France about $65 billion plus interest over the Submarine program steal.
This is where geopolitics and country mandates flail at each other dismally to probably create the advancement of “nothing” over hurt feelings and lost contracts. The children are fighting on the playground once again and are fighting for supremacy on top of the “monkey bars”.