U.S. solar tariffs will have minimal effect on residential solar costs in 2018

U.S. solar

The new solar import tariff regime being enacted by the U.S. is not likely to benefit U.S. market either, says SolarReviews.com.

“The rationale for imposing tariffs is complete bunk. Most, if not all, of government support for the solar industry in Chinahas now been withdrawn, said president and CEO, Andy Sendy, SolarReviews.com.

“President Trump is pretending to protect U.S. manufacturing jobs, though in reality the decision will cost nearly 23,0000 U.S. jobs in the downstream segments of the industry, according to estimates by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA),” Sendy added.

Earlier this week, the U.S. Trade Representative (ITC) imposed 30 percent additional tariffs on imported solar panels and cells, declining by 5 percent per year over four years, with an exemption for the first 2.5 gigawatts of imports.

These tariffs are the result of the Section 201 trade petition by Suniva and SolarWorld, which have production in the U.S., that petitioned the ITC for relief against what it said was unfair competition from overseas imports.

Based on the estimates, the retail cost of a residential solar install will increase approximately 4.9 percent. Additionally, the immediate impact over the early months of 2018 from the 30 percent import duty will be reduced by the fact that many Chinese solar companies moved large volumes of stock into the United States prior to the announcement of this tariff. In some cases, they moved enough stock to meet almost six months of demand.

Here is a graph from SolarReviews showing the breakdown of costs that together make up the retail price on an installed solar system:

“There will undoubtedly be rises in the wholesale price of modules, but we don’t expect the new tariffs to lead to any meaningful increase in the cost of residential solar energy systems over 2018,” added Sendy.

“Rather, the new tariffs will take away cost reductions that would have happened without the tariffs as they absorb the efficiency improvements that will happen across the solar supply chain during 2018 and 2019,” Sendy said.

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