link-Canary Media-"clean energy" is their angleThe fate of the entire U.S. solar industry could hinge on the whims of one small company in California. If the tariffs being demanded by San Jose–based panel manufacturer Auxin Solar are enacted, it could bring the fast-growing, multibillion-dollar solar sector to a screeching halt.
Earlier this year, Auxin Solar submitted a petition to the U.S. Department of Commerce alleging that Chinese companies are dodging the U.S. tariffs initially imposed by the Obama administration on Chinese and Taiwanese solar cells and modules by building them in Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam while still using Chinese-built polysilicon wafers and other materials, as well as Chinese intellectual property. In late March, the U.S. Department of Commerce began an investigation into the companies for circumvention of anti-dumping and countervailing duties — and the impact is already causing shockwaves across the solar supply and customer chain.
Mamun Rashid, co-founder and CEO of Auxin Solar, said in an email: “For years, Chinese solar producers have refused to fairly price their products in the U.S. and have gone to significant lengths to continue undercutting American manufacturers and workers by establishing circumventing operations in countries not covered by those duties.”
But the U.S. solar industry relies heavily on those imports to operate, and the majority of industry players in the U.S. and around the world have taken a strong stance against the tariffs.
Solar project developer Ty Daul, CEO of Primergy, said on LinkedIn that “attempts to impose frivolous tariffs on solar manufacturers in Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam are self-serving and narrow-minded, propped up under the guise of international labor concerns.”
Chinese solar manufacturer Trina Solar took to Twitter, saying: “In just one week, the Biden admin’s tariff case has stopped solar panel supply in the U.S. The industry urges [the Commerce Department] to end this disastrous investigation before its [clean energy] agenda is put out of reach.”
Solar Energy Industries Association CEO Abby Hopper said in a statement that the investigation has unleashed an “existential crisis” in the U.S. solar industry.
The frenzied growth of solar power is a pillar of the U.S. carbon-reduction plan, but now the market’s near-term existence is being threatened by the actions of one lone company. Since more than 90 percent of the world’s solar panels are built in Asia, “We can’t battle climate change without imports,” as Matthew Nicely, a partner at lobbying firm Akin Gump, said in testimony before the U.S. Trade Representative in January 2022.
