Panel dumping? So what?

JRHill

Hopefully this is not too political:
https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/02/politics/china-solar-tariff-investigation-climate/index.html

If the need to scale renewable generation, in this case solar, is really a priority then why is it harped about and then squashed? With protectionist efforts already in the talk/media there isn't really any competitive thing going on domestically related to panel manufacturing is there? There is some but it really seems to be some effort to take advantage of largess and deferrals for taxes and site development and then it goes where?

If a foreign gov't wants to fund the manufacturing effort to flood a market with their product why shouldn't we jump on that to full effect and build out what is supposedly the major priority? That being our energy production. Yes, this is a complicated issue but I don't believe for a moment those foreign suppliers can make us dependent for long, if we were serious. The USA can ramp up 'quickly' if a national challenge. So why not take advantage of it while we can?

OK, I'm done with the rant.

Constructive thoughts?

Photowhit

The story is about evading the US tariffs, but I think you are asking why we impose tariffs.

It's basically a tool to level the playing field for US manufacturers. The US government feels the solar industry is support too much by the China government, making their panels cheaper than US produced panels. So the tariffs (a 'tax' sort of on people importing the panels) are imposed to increase the cost of the panels.

FWIW - Obama and Trump imposed tariffs. It was done reasonably quickly with Obama, the amount of tariffs was announce within 3 months and they were made active on announcement so people importing the panels were required to pay tariffs on panels ordered before tariffs were announce. With Trump, the announcement of new tariffs came 9 months before they were imposed which stalled the solar industry because no one wanted to buy panels and not know the price with tariffs.

You can see the slump it caused in the solar industry in 2017-2018;

Dave Angelini

https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2022/12/01/solar-and-storage-prices-soared-as-a-result-of-market-disruptions-nrel-reports/

Many on both sides of the isle believe it will take a lifetime (70 years) to de carbonize the US market.  And that is if they can source the raw materials and manufacture product here.

JRHill

Dave Angelini said:

https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2022/12/01/solar-and-storage-prices-soared-as-a-result-of-market-disruptions-nrel-reports/

Many on both sides of the isle believe it will take a lifetime (70 years) to de carbonize the US market.  And that is if they can source the raw materials and manufacture product here.

Good article. And one issue I fully agree with is the use of forced labor aspect. But that covers a lot more than panels.

Dave Angelini

Yes it does cover more along with buying oil from Venezuela. Have to move this into the weeds.....