Tariffs on imported solar cells are a bad idea

{mosads}Most participants in the solar industry, here and throughout the world, recognize that subsidies are not exclusive to China. Every nation seeking to accelerate the development of solar has sought by various measures to provide support. From tax credits, grants and loans to loan guarantees, access to land and other benefits, these nations have committed public resources to the expansion of solar. As the International Energy Agency pointed out in its June 2011 Clean Energy Progress Report, “In 2010, almost all major economies had some form of support scheme for renewable electricity.”

The intensity of SolarWorld’s attack on the government of China’s support for solar development is exceeded only by the extent of subsidies in the U.S., Europe and elsewhere from which SolarWorld itself has benefited. In Europe, for example, between 2003 and 2011 SolarWorld received about $130 million for their solar wafer and module plants; in the U.S. SolarWorld received tens of millions of dollars in tax credits from both Oregon and the federal government as well as a $61 loan guarantee from the U.S. Export-Import bank.

SolarWorld’s effort to raise the price of solar energy to America’s consumers and businesses is selfish, short-sighted and senseless. The best thing that has happened to the solar industry is the sharp decline in the price of solar panels. Have the Chinese invested heavily in the expansion of their solar industry? Yes. Have they helped to drive down the costs of solar cells? Again, yes. Has this effort hurt the U.S. solar industry? Absolutely not.

The sharp drop in the cost of solar cells and panels has led to the greatest expansion of solar installations that the U.S. has ever seen. Thousands of workers who lost jobs when the housing market collapsed are now gainfully employed in jobs — that can’t be outsourced — installing solar systems on homes, box stores, office buildings and at sites for utility-scale generation. Further, the price drop has also spurred more innovation in the material and equipment used in manufacturing solar cells and solar systems. For example, one of the world’s innovative manufacturers of polysilicon — REC Silicon — employs 500 at a manufacturing plant in the State of Washington and is a major exporter to China and Asia. So too is Silicon Valley based Twin Creek Technologies which produces a tool to make thinner, better, and cheaper silicon solar cells.

In the U.S. solar industry, manufacturing is not exclusively the domain of companies that manufacture silicon solar cells. It is a much larger, more dynamic industry. To expand the use of solar energy, we shouldn’t be making decisions that arbitrarily and artificially raise costs to consumers and businesses. We are at a critical moment in America’s solar development. We should be doing everything we can to drive costs down, not up.

Jigar Shah is the president of the Coalition for Affordable Solar Energy and the founder of SunEdison, a solar energy services company.