Trump slaps tariff on imported solar panels

[AT Hiker]

I’m not sure how to read this article. One paragraph states how devastating it’s going to be for the industry and the next mentions an American panels stock increasing.

Maybe Clarksville will get Hemlock back[emoji848]

http://time.com/5113472/donald-trump-so ... el-tariff/

““Developers may have to walk away from their projects,” Hugh Bromley, a New York-based analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, said in an interview before Trump’s decision. “Some rooftop solar companies may have to pull out” of some states.

U.S. panel maker First Solar Inc. jumped 9 percent to $75.20 in after-hours trading in New York. The Tempe, Arizona-based manufacturer stands to gain as costs for competing, foreign panels rise. First Solar didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The Solar Energy Industries Association also didn’t immediately respond.”


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[RUGER]

Re: Trump slaps tariff on imported solar panels

Whatever the "real" effects are, the msm will spin it that anything he does is absolutely horrible.

I'm still trying to figure out how it can even be fesible to go solar and "off the grid" since those things are super expensive.
The systems large enough to power a home I mean.

 

[DaveB]

Re: Trump slaps tariff on imported solar panels

China is selling the panels for less than the cost of manufacturing the panels. They do this so they can over time control the marketplace.

Never forget this is RED China. They will take your life-hundreds of thousands of lives if necessary-with nary a concern.

Remember the 1989 Tiananmen Square thing? The government billed the families of executed protesters for the cost of the bullet that killed their husband/son/daughter.

I like this guy. He had more courage than most of us. He probably was dead before the sun set.

 

[BamaProud]

Re: Trump slaps tariff on imported solar panels

Whatever the "real" effects are, the msm will spin it that anything he does is absolutely horrible.

I'm still trying to figure out how it can even be fesible to go solar and "off the grid" since those things are super expensive.
The systems large enough to power a home I mean.

I researched this a bit last Spring and posted this in another thread:

Solar power as a primary means of generating electricity is a pipe dream.

There are 2,504,556 homes in Tennessee. (and that is just homes there are probably a million or more businesses)
https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/table/PST045216/47

Working at peak efficiency (full sun at noon on the Solar Equinox) This technologically advanced(experimental) Solar array in West TN at the Agricenter, operates around 20% higher efficiency than standard solar panel arrays. The array spreads across 5 acres (over 4,000 panels) and is capable of powering ~100 "Average sized Memphis homes". http://www.agricenter.org/solar/

Assuming West TN homes are roughly the same size as the rest of Tennessee homes, It would take 125,227 acres of the advanced solar panels to power the state of TN, or 150,273 acres worth of the standard panels. That is between 196 and 235 square miles of solar panels operating at peak efficiency to power just the states homes. The array and the ground it sits on ground also has to be maintained. Its barely practical to supplement our power with solar energy. ...and I surely don't know where we are going to find 300-400 square miles of land to put the arrays 235 ain't going to be enough since the array is never going to be at peak efficiency. To power homes and businesses it might take 800-1,000 square miles of panels.

Solar power just isn't practical unless we want t pay hundreds times more for our power. Maybe one day it will be, but we aren't even close yet.

 

[WTM]

Re: Trump slaps tariff on imported solar panels

its not about renewable energy, its about the enforcement of trade agreements. tariffs and duties are part of the “mechanisms” in all of the free trade agreements that punishes companies that corner the market, undermine pricing and dramatically costs jobs but the US has never enforced them but 1 time that i can remember when barry o. imposed a 35% duty on chinese tires. he even got raked for it because it would raise the price of tires 9 whole dollars. Americans are addicted to cheap chinese goods but also gripe about losing jobs, lol, go figure.

http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/03/news/ec ... index.html

as far as the Hemlock plant, that was sad, when they started they were selling silicon for about $500/lb and when the chinese opened their plants it drove prices down to about $75/lb. its gone now and Google is about finished with the new data center.

 

[Chaneylake]

Re: Trump slaps tariff on imported solar panels

Whatever the "real" effects are, the msm will spin it that anything he does is absolutely horrible.

I'm still trying to figure out how it can even be fesible to go solar and "off the grid" since those things are super expensive.
The systems large enough to power a home I mean.

government money involved to help provide "clean energy"

there are 2 in the Brownsville area, street talk says would not be possible without government help

 

[hillbillyfab]

Re: Trump slaps tariff on imported solar panels

as far as the Hemlock plant, that was sad, when they started they were selling silicon for about $500/lb and when the chinese opened their plants it drove prices down to about $75/lb. its gone now and Google is about finished with the new data center.

You know I worked on that site when ground was broke. Got to meet and talk to several plant officials. I asked them how were they gonna compete with the Chinese? Several of them responded, that their product was far superior in quality, etc. So then the question was presented about availability. It was going to be several years before the first "batch" was available, but yet the Chinese were already online with theirs. I asked then did they expect customers to wait for theirs or buy the "inferior" product? I got the deer in the headlights look more than once from them. I felt like they honestly didn't believe their customers would go anywhere else. It seemed like they had their hands over the ears and wouldn't hear of such talk, of course this is all just my opinion [emoji1]

I wish it would have worked out for them, because the schedule showed years of work in future expansions and different phases.