Posted on Thursday, 05.17.12
BY DON LEE
TRIBUNE WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration ordered tariffs of 31 percent and higher on solar panels imported from China, escalating a simmering trade dispute with China over a case that has sharply divided American interests in the growing clean-energy industry.
The Commerce Department announced the stiff duties Thursday after making a preliminary finding that Chinese solar panel manufacturers "dumped" their goods - that is, sold them at below fair-market value.
The widely anticipated ruling, if affirmed by U.S. trade officials this fall, is expected to have significant implications for both the global production of solar cells, now largely in China, and the growth of the solar energy industry in the U.S., which employs about 100,000 people in manufacturing, installation and services.
More than 60 Chinese firms, including Suntech Power Holdings Co., the world's largest solar panel maker, and Trina Solar Ltd., face a 31 percent duty on their exports to the U.S., retroactive to shipments made in February. All other Chinese exporters of solar cells will be hit with a tariff of 250 percent....
In Connecticut, however, there is a lot of incentive for residents to LEASE solar panels from their energy company. It save money.
Demands for solar panels feel when the global recession hit Europe. European countries found their austerity cut government incentives to encourage the use of alternative energies, simply because they are new infrastructure projects. The price of solar panels fell because they were not in high demand and the Chinese labor market could turn them out far less then labor anywhere else in The West. But, the scenery is changing and USA manufacturer of quality products and their use in local economies are proving to bring back the demand.
Conn. subsidies seen spurring home solar power (click here)
By Stephen Singer
AP Business Writer / May 20, 2012
HARTFORD, Conn.—Dmitri Donskoy figures he'll save only $20 a month on his electricity bill after solar panels are installed on the roof of his home under a state-subsidized program. But he shrugs it off because the green energy appeals to his environmental concerns.
"It was partly sparked by my annoyance of the cancellation of the windmill project," he said. "There must be a way for us to contribute."
Installing solar panels could cost, on average, $35,000, according to a state energy agency spokesman. Donskoy says he's leasing because he doesn't have thousands of dollars to spend, instead paying a solar company $58 a month for his electricity.
"The savings didn't motivate me. It's really the environmental aspects," Donskoy said.
Solar energy is seen as one way to save in Connecticut, where residential electricity costs were the third highest in the United States in 2010, exceeded only by Hawaii and New York, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Solar represents a fraction of the state's overall energy supply, but backers hope it will grow....
