Why Solar Panel Tariff

The china us tariff war is ongoing and the global solar industry has become subjected to its rippling impacts.

Why solar panel tariff. The effect of the tariffs on the cost of imported solar panels makes it more difficult to compete with other sources of power like wind or even makes fossil fuel plants look attractive again mr. Rose in 2018 but here s why that didn t happen. In january 2018 trump imposed a 30 tariff on imported solar panels to combat and compete with china s booming solar industry and ease american producers concerns. The tariff covers both imported solar cells a key input to manufacturing solar panels and solar modules otherwise known as solar panels.

A tariff or tax of 30 will be applied to imported solar panels most of which come from china. However the tariff may ultimately harm american solar panel producers more than their chinese counterparts. According to a fact sheet released by the u s. The tariff was imposed at the request of two domestic solar panel manufacturers suniva and solarworld which have been struggling recently against cheap solar panels coming from china.

Trade representative this tariff will last for four years and will fall by 5 annually dropping to a 15 tariff in 2021. Those levies were less severe than requested by suniva and. The president approved four years of tariffs that start at 30 percent in the. However the tariff does not increase the final price of solar systems by 20 since it only affects panels and cells.

The first 2 5 gigawatts of imported solar cells will be exempt from the tariffs trump said in a statement monday. Solar panels are cheap despite trump tariffs it would make sense if solar panel prices in the u s. The solar energy industries association predicted the tariffs. On solar panels trump imposed tariffs of 30 percent in the first year which will gradually fall to half that figure in four years.

The move is a major blow for the 28 billion solar industry which gets about 80 percent of its solar panel products from imports.