Comments on: Solar Press Release War

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 02:31:00 +0000

I still can’t say i agree with this approach. I think it is more harmful than helpful for those of us who want to see more solar in the world faster. But I will go ahead and post your response here as a reply (publish it as a guest post). Is there anything in the content you would like changed before I do so?

By: Nemo

Nemo — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 20:47:00 +0000

You are being naive, reactionary, and are ill-informed, and so is CASE. I noted that most of the CASE members are smaller companies, First Solar and Sunpower are conspicuously absent. Could be because they actually know what’s happening here.

Last week the Commerce department agreed to an investigation on this matter. What I never see mentioned is that the attempts to address this with the Chinese directly were rebuffed with threats by them. The Chinese applied tariffs to all non-chinese manufactured PV and other solar equipment for their own market. No one mentions that there is also evidence that the costs of Chinese PV’s are higher than what they are selling them for, classic dumping to gain market share. And in violation of trade laws.

What people also forget is that the Chinese are dependant upon the USA for innovation. When the next generation of solar collectors is out, their lead will evaporate if they don’t get the new tech sold to them (or they outright steal it). Why is it OK for them to do setup protectionism for their own solar market and not for us to respond in kind when faced with it?

It’s all well and good to claim openness to competition, which I fully support. Except that is nothing of the sort here, and it’s not due to SolarWorld’s petition. The Chinese do not have to play fair, and our response should be not to whine about it, but retailiate in kind, or we will lcertainly ose those jobs CASE is concerned about.

On Monday, Commerce Secretary Chu made a good case for government support of Solar to get back in this game. What CASE is doing does nothing towards that end.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 21:14:00 +0000

Thanks. Agreed. I like to think that everyone in the business is in it for reasons beyond money, but I know that’s not the case — this is an industry with a ton of growth potential. That said, maybe the folks filing this petition just don’t want their whole business to collapse around them and have to deal with that disaster, but the bottom line is that this petition isn’t good for the majority of the industry and those of us outside the industry who want to see solar succeed and expand. Anyway, I know you know all that, just got on a ramble

By: Ed

Ed — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 12:32:00 +0000

Great post Zach:
This is the kind of crap that we must endure when people go into a business (any business) with “profit” as their main goal. I agree that the wage disparity between the US and Chins is a big hurdle to jump over. Asking for trade barriers in order to protect a business is counterproductive. Finding a way to make better solar panels would be a more effective use of a companies time than asking for Nana to keep away the boogie man.
Ed