USA puts tariffs on Solar Panels; will AU follow?

[IVI]

U.S. Imposes Tariffs On Chinese Solar Cells
Posted by Soulskill on 2012.05.18 21:32
from the sunshine-of-your-love dept.

New submitter kimtysirt sends this excerpt from a Bloomberg report about US tariffs for Chinese solar panels:

"The US yesterday imposed tariffs of as much as 250 percent on Chinese-made solar cells to aid domestic manufacturers beset by foreign competition, though critics said the decision may end up raising prices and hurting the US renewable energy industry.

The US Commerce Department ruled that Chinese manufacturers sold cells in the US at prices below the cost of production and announced preliminary antidumping duties ranging from 31 percent to 250 percent, depending on the manufacturer.

China criticized the action, saying the US is hurting itself and cooperation between the world’s two largest economies.

The decision is meant to provide a boost to the US solar manufacturing industry, where four companies filed for bankruptcy in the past year."

+ http://hardware.SlashDot.org/story/12/0 ... olar-cells

Of course, I ask because having Renewable Energy for EVs makes a lot of sense, and - although wind is really the better choice - people seem to accept solar panels more than wind generators.

If our solar panels go up in price, due to any future tariff on their import, this could affect the economy of EVs, at least a bit.

What'cha think?

[weber]

Unfortunately Australia doesn't have a domestic solar cell manufacturing industry to protect. So there would be no political mileage in doing what the USA has done.

[Edit: Changed "solar industry" to "solar cell manufacturing industry"]

[CometBoy]

You sure mate??

How about Tindo Solar

Or maybe Silex Solar

Adrian Ferraretto and others in the game might like a little support?

[weber]

Hi CometBoy,

I was aware of Silex, but not Tindo. Thanks. Both of them only assemble panels, which is good, but they don't manufacture cells. Tindo's website says they import their cells from a German company Q-Cells (that just filed for insolvency, thanks to the Chinese), and Silex stopped making their own cells in August last year and started importing them. Even when BP used to make panels here they imported the cells.

Chinese dumping is a real problem. The US is smart. Aussie governments should have supported a domestic PV manufacturing industry long ago. But Coal is King.

[BigMouse]

Maybe the reduction in demand from the US will create a surplus of Chinese cells available to the Australian market. If only the Australian government would support any sort of solar industry for more than a few years at a time.

[CometBoy]

Yes, research here like that carried out by our ARC Photovoltaics Centre of Excellence continues to be world class (See this recent article) but no local PV cell production results.

And as pointed out by Weber, we struggle even to put imported cells in locally manufactured solar panels.