Why kill the solar industry?

he wants u.s. solar manufacturers to thrive?

his could be elon musks big opportunity to build a solar panel factory.

 

Come to think of I never saw solar panels on Tesla's gigafactory.

 

We tried to build solar panels in the US once upon a time....

As far as 'killing the industry?"

I really doubt that.
Dot.gov is still giving kickback money to solar investors, not to mention state money that's being handed out.
If solar is ever going to be a .....(sorry!)..........bright idea, then it is going to have to stand on its own as something that only a complete MORON would NOT do.

See Also:
LED bulbs.

I do not see those being subsidized any longer, and not many people are buying incandescent bulbs because you don't need a calculator to noodle out which one is cheaper.

Patience.

 

Apparently their excuse is 2 bankrupt US companies wanted it. How much do you bet there is PAC money from the electrical power industry involved?

 

They're foreign-owned US companies, and one of them is even Chinese-owned.

 

who gets the tariff money?

 

The Federal government, AFAIK.

 

thanks, good for the debt anyway.

 

Too many hidden players to figure out the end game.

 

Elon already thought of that. Although more because it needed to be done, not because of tariffs.
Tesla Starts Production of Solar Cells in Buffalo - Bloomberg

Production started months ago, and will ramp up to 1GW production capacity in 2019 and eventually 2GW.
Although that may be accelerated now.

 

'one gigawatt is like eliminating a nuclear or coal fired power plant every year', amazing!

 

PV tariff appears to be set at 30% for all imported panels. So, manufacturers in Germany, Japan, India, Taiwan, Malaysia, Spain, Norway, Belgium, Netherlands, France, Australia, Italy, and S. Korea will be affected. In addition to those based in PR China, which appear to produce 40% of global panels.

All this is stated as a means to combat dumping of panels by PR China. Which they may or may not be doing. But let's say they are. US manufacturers (mainly SunPower and First Solar) will have domestic market to themselves. Other countries will ingest global panel supply unencumbered by US tariff. So, other countries will get to grow their PV gen capacity, with Chinese govt partially paying for it. Which is what dumping means.

We can imagine benefits for US manufacturers, and damage to PV installers and system integrators. It is a transparent way of 'holding back the flood' of renewable energy which will benefit fossil fuel burners. For the moment.

 

I believe Musk is making them in Buffalo NY too for his solar roofing.

 

Next will be the tax credits. It is the same program used by Reagan in the '80s to kill the alternative energy industry. Solar is starting to seriously compete with more traditional energy producers.

 

Tax credits and other favorable treatments are what they are. For both renewable and fossil-E industries. Either or both may change in future. In my view it would be regrettable but possible for renewables to cease and fossils to persist. We'll just have to wait and see now much money each brings to (or under) the table.

Anyone who honestly promotes US employment growth would have a hard time hating renewables while loving fossils. But that may be just too political to consider here.

 

Except this time they are too late.
Unsubsidized wind is cheaper than coal.
Unsubsidized Solar is getting close.

The loss of tax credit would slow down the train, but it wont stop it. And standing in the way of a train is not a good idea...

 

Z-man always gets a like. I'm such a pushover.

Problem is we don't know cost of unsubsidized coal. Nobody does, because nobody accounts for the lungs and rivers.

 

Responding to the thread title question, nobody is killing solar because nobody can. Certainly not the tied-for-fourth manufacturing country which currently has 11% of global installed nameplate power.

 

The 80's @15. Ah memories. PV panel prices fell from $24/watt to 8 during that decade. Now they stand at 0.45 or 0.30 depending on who you ask.