Trump Issues Solar Tariffs: We Answer Your Questions
Energy Gang
Wood Mackenzie
4.6 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 23 January 2018
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Trump Administration just imposed 30 percent tariffs on imported solar cells and modules. How much will it stunt solar growth in America? Will it spark a broader trade war?
There are a lot of questions about the impact. In this podcast, we’re giving you the answers – or, as many answers we have, just a day after the decision.
This week, we'll bring together our teams from The Interchange and The Energy Gang together to answer listener questions about the tariffs. We'll also talk with GTM Research's Cory Honeyman about how (and where) the 30 percent penalty will impact projects around the U.S.
Thanks to sponsor, C Power Energy Management. Find out more about CPower's demand-side energy management solutions.
In this episode, we address:
- What does a 30 percent tariff mean for project economics in the residential and utility-scale sectors?
- How will the 2.5 gigawatt cell quota work?
- Will the decision help domestic U.S. manufacturing? Will it hurt domestic installation jobs?
- What kind of challenges will we see at the World Trade Organization?
- Is there a pathway toward a negotiation with China?
- How could local policy blunt the negative impact of these tariffs?
Read all our previous coverage and analysis of the Trump Administration's solar tariffs:
- GTM Research: New Tariffs to Curb US Solar Installations by 11% Through 2022
- GTM: Trump Administration Issues 30% Solar Panel Import Tariff
- GTM: Foreign Solar Manufacturers Weigh Opening US Facilities as Tariff Decision Looms
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Energy Gang is brought to you by Sea Power Energy Management. |
| 0:05.0 | Sea Power provides custom demand-side energy management solutions that help keep you green and earn revenue in the process. |
| 0:11.0 | Sea Power is a leading national provider of demand response curtailment programs. |
| 0:16.0 | And if you think about it, the greenest energy is probably the energy you don't use. |
| 0:21.0 | C-power also offers integrated solutions like storage plus demand response and other tools to help you achieve your green energy goals and monetize your energy assets. |
| 0:30.0 | See Power is here to help you. To help you save on energy costs, earn revenue through energy |
| 0:35.4 | curtailment, enhance your sustainability efforts, and contribute to a balanced, reliable grid. |
| 0:41.1 | Find out more about Seapower's demand side energy management solutions at |
| 0:45.3 | Seepower Energy Management.com. The Trump administration just imposed 30% tariffs on imported solar cells and modules. |
| 1:04.5 | How much will it set back solar growth in America? |
| 1:06.9 | And will it spark a broader trade war? |
| 1:09.0 | That's what everyone is asking. |
| 1:10.6 | In this special episode, we're giving you the answers, at least as many of them as we have just a day after the decision |
| 1:16.7 | I'm Stephen Lacey editor-in-chief of green tech media and today we're forming a podcasting supergroup in the second half of the show I'll bring my energy gang co-host Jigger Shaw and Catherine Hamilton together with my interchange co-host shale Khan for a roundtable on what Trump's tariffs mean for solar demand, solar economics, and solar jobs. |
| 1:36.0 | We'll answer your Twitter questions. First, though, some context and some number crunching. |
| 1:42.0 | The U.S. International Trade Commission ruled this fall |
| 1:44.5 | that domestic solar manufacturers had faced serious injury from imported |
| 1:48.4 | solar cells and modules. And after review of that case, the Trump |
| 1:52.0 | administration largely followed tariff recommendations of commissioners. |
| 1:55.5 | On Monday, the office of the U.S. Trade Representative issued 30% tariffs on cells and modules coming from outside America. |
| 2:03.0 | Those tariffs step down 5% each year over the next four years. |
| 2:08.0 | I asked Corey Honeyman, the Associate Director of GTM Research's solar practice, |
... |
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