Why Does The Solar Industry Keep Hitting Itself?

By Chip Martin, Special to Solar Wakeup

Damn you, Department of Commerce

You could have settled this bloody trade war between the Chinese and American solar industries two years ago when you decided in SolarWorld’s favor in 2012.

Here’s a little advice: You should probably fire all the lawyers involved in crafting that decision because they left open a loophole so big you could steer the USS Theodore Roosevelt through.

Anyone remember 2012? The ugly public spat between some U.S. solar manufacturers (by no means all) on one side and practically everyone else in the U.S. solar industry on the other? The endless press releases (often within minutes of each other) with both sides vilifying and crucifying each other in the press.

In late 2012, the Department of Commerce finally levied high tariffs against several major Chinese panel manufacturers, arguing they artificially reduced the price of silicon panels by receiving unfair subsidies from the Chinese government and dumping excess inventory into the United States. Jigar Shah, well-known critic of the SolarWorld complaint and founder of SunEdison, put it well (emphasis mine):

“We are gratified that the scope of today’s decision is limited only to solar cells made in China and that the Department did not significantly increase the tariff from its preliminary decision in May.”

Well said, Mr. Shah — except you highlighted the gigantic flaw in the whole discussion: Since a final decision took more than a year to arrive, the Chinese manufacturers had devised plans to circumvent the tariffs. They moved their factories to other Asian companies, which meant, of course, that technically, their cells were no longer made in China. No Chinese cells, no tariffs.

That’s where the Department of Commerce’s “even-handed” decision allowed SolarWorld to come back for another bite at the apple, which threatens to split the industry again into two warring camps. The barely-healed wounds from 2012 are being reopened.

If you buy into SolarWorld’s essential argument — that Chinese subsidies and dumping of excess inventory is harming the U.S. panel manufacturers — their new complaint makes sense. But there’s a larger point being missed here.

SolarWorld was in financial trouble. Last year, they teetered on the brink of bankruptcy, and 2014 doesn’t hold much more promise for them to succeed. Simply put, SolarWorld is fighting a rear-guard action to save its own business, pure and simple — and it’s willing to put its own interests ahead of the industry’s.

Ultimately, lower prices for installed solar will benefit everyone, no matter whose panels are used. Some companies are going to succeed; others are going to fail. That’s the way young markets work. It’s not right that some struggling manufacturers are making it hard for the rest of us to succeed.

We have too many other opponents to battle to keep inflicting debilitating wounds on ourselves. Let’s get behind closed doors, work out a settlement and show the public a united front from here on out.