Comments on: Why consumers shouldn’t worry about the new solar tariffs

By: Grump

Grump — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 17:43:29 +0000

I just priced out an off-grid solar system at less than 5 $/W plus tax including storage batteries for a system just big enough to power a 12 cu. ft. fridge with 2 days ride-out capacity. Fortunately, in Canada, this has no impact.
‘This will only hurt a little bit’ – sure, that’s what they say. It still hurts. On the other hand, Government Motors, which wouldn’t even be in business without government handouts, is making hay in the Chinese market. You best know what your doing when you throw the first punch.

By: DavidB

DavidB — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 16:25:52 +0000

How do you come to the conclusion that a 250% tariff on the smaller, and a 31% tariff on Big Businesses, will not hurt consumers? This is Obama’s way to get his union vote, while the rest of us pay the actual bills!!!!!
This will not make jobs here, but simply hurt the Chinese, and benefit Mexico and Brazil. Remember Solyndra? If only they had these tariffs, they’d get rich no matter the sales.
People pay attention- this hurts jobs-

By: Royce Jones

Royce Jones — Tue, 22 May 2012 04:05:31 +0000

The tarrifs are long over due. Last year we lost 3 US solar manufactures to China’s currency manlipulation, dumping and subsidies. The cost of BOS, installation, etc. will be the same regardless of US or Chinese production, but the US manufacturers of cells and panels looks much brighter. The arguement that we need China is so flawed it is insane. What we need are US companies that can stay in business long enough to push new generations of cells into the market to lower cost. Programs like the DOE SunShot would be a waste of billions in research if there was no one here to take the technology to market. Besides, for every US solar job created, 3 other US jobs will be stimulated. This works the other way as well, for every job exported you lose another 3. This is how we lost 20 million jobs in 10 years. Ask Apple, 90% of every dollar spent on Apple products is exported, they are now a Chinese company. Millions of skilled people are standing in the unemployment line, living off food stamps and section 8 housing and the government has to borrow 66% of its revenues from the federal reserve because there are no longer enough taxpayers to support the government’s spending. Now I would like to see all tax incentives for solar limited to made in the USA only, there is no reason why we our tax dollars should go to China or Japan or anywhere else for that matter.

By: Ucilia Wang

Ucilia Wang — Mon, 21 May 2012 22:10:51 +0000

Hi Susan, thanks for sharing your own experience.

By: alf

alf — Sat, 19 May 2012 19:40:10 +0000

@bglick4 Dude.. You seriously have no idea what you are talking about.
1) Supply is out-stripping demand (low prices) and the Chinese are accused of selling below cost to increase market share (very low prices). So customers of the solar manufacturers have certainly not been getting “gouged” in that context.
2) Investing in research is good (see sunshot initiative), but costs are more affected by “economics of scale” and the “maturity of the supply chain”. Subsidies are needed to push the industry to it’s tipping point.
3) I’m out of time.

By: Susan Kraemer

Susan Kraemer — Sat, 19 May 2012 08:43:53 +0000

Great news. What evidence did you find that the panels are only 20 %? IIRC when I briefly worked in estimates in 2008 it was more like 40 % – but I may have that wrong.

By: Susan Kraemer

Susan Kraemer — Sat, 19 May 2012 08:40:16 +0000

I agree the balance of system is where the cost is. My own experience with going solar was instructive – it took 8 months to get our city building department to ok it – through the inspector’s sheer ignorance of solar- this delay meant lots of man hours wasted on what should be pretty easy.

By: Ucilia Wang

Ucilia Wang — Sat, 19 May 2012 07:03:36 +0000

@Chris: Thanks for the feedback from the installers you spoke with. I think the tariffs aren’t good news for manufacturers, and those who get the 250% tariff (and I don’t know who they are) could be forced out of the market. With rising costs by using Taiwanese cell makers, profit margins could be slimmer. And that certain suck. I’m just not convinced the tariffs, as they stand, will lead to a big shift in buying from non-Chinese manufacturers. But I think the smaller installers might feel a greater impact of a price increase and not be able to do much about it because they don’t buy in large volumes to start with. Or maybe not, if they do mostly direct sales of equipment and their customers have a greater tolerance for price fluctuations.

By: Ucilia Wang

Ucilia Wang — Fri, 18 May 2012 19:19:56 +0000

I said manufacturers can absorb and/or increase their prices, but there are ways to minimize the impact (and I’m not saying they won’t suffer financially, but my story is looking at impact to consumers). As far as passing on the increased cost to consumers, here are some numbers to consider: solar panel prices fell by around 50% in 201, but the average price for a residential system fell 3.6% — it actually went up slightly from Q3 to Q4. Other factors have a greater impact on the overall price for consumers. I mentioned a few: the soft costs (permitting, sales/marketing); the growth of leases/PPAs (more expensive than direct equipment purchase by consumers).

By: michael kanellos

michael kanellos — Fri, 18 May 2012 16:02:39 +0000

Very good story. I think the whole tariff thing is overblown. Prices are coming down and the next two areas of price reductions–balance of systems and factory modernization–aren’t necessarily panel centric. In fact, you could argue that China’s strong suits-cheap labor, capital and land–will start to fade. There will be far less interest in some of the tactics allegedly used in the past.