In a move that could upset the US political apple cart all over Washington, Nevada Congresswoman Jacky Rosen has introduced a bipartisan bill to the House of Congress which, if successful, could overturn the 30% tariff on imported solar cells and modules introduced by President Donald Trump earlier this year.
US-based NextEra Energy has signed one of the largest solar panel supply deals in history with China-based JinkoSolar for 2,750 megawatts (MW) alongside a separate move in which JinkoSolar will open its first US manufacturing facility in Jacksonville, Florida.
The global solar market installed an impressive 98.9 gigawatts of new capacity in 2017 according to SolarPower Europe, increasing by 29.3%, in comparison to the 76.5 gigawatts and 49% recorded in 2016.
China has this week filed complaints with the World Trade Organization seeking talks on compensation with the United States for the recent tariffs that President Donald Trump signed off on for imported solar cells and modules and washing machines.
The US solar industry lost nearly 10,000 jobs in 2017 according to latest figures from the National Solar Job Census 2017 published this week by The Solar Foundation, the first year that jobs have decreased since the Foundation began publishing its Census in 2010.
The 30% solar tariff that US President Donald Trump has agreed to impose on imported solar modules and cells will cause the US solar industry to constrict by 11% over the next 5 years, causing nearly a quarter million customers to no longer install solar. It will hit the utility-scale solar sector the hardest.
A group of 409 clean energy business leaders organized by independent environmental advocacy group E2 has penned a letter to US President Donald Trump opposing his recent decision to impose a 30% tariff on all imported solar cells and modules, warning that the move has the potential to eliminate almost 90,000 American jobs.
New analysis by GTM Research published a day after Donald Trump applied a 30% tariff on imported solar cells and modules shows that the US solar industry will see a 11% decrease in installations over the next 5 years, a reduction of around 7.6 gigawatts of installed solar between 2018 and 2022.
The recently announced 30% solar tariff could be offset and overwhelmed by new plans announced this week by the Rocky Mountain Institute and 35 solar energy industry leaders, which have committed to developing an ultra-low-cost solar product which could significantly reduce costs to the point that fully installed costs would only reach $0.50 per watt.
After 8 months of uncertainty and vitriol, US President Donald Trump has decided this week to impose a 30% tariff on imported solar cells and modules in response to a Section 201 trade case filed by Suniva and SolarWorld back in April of 2017, a move which will likely cost 23,000 American jobs this year.
