The US “exit” from the Paris Agreement + questioning continued tariffs for solar energy

Hello Ms May and all who care,

I am a solar installer in BC and I don’t think Elizabeth understands the full
scope of why there is a suggestion for tariffs on Chinese made solar panels.
This is a very, very important topic for figuring out a successful solar energy
future and I hope she can read this.

The US once lead the world in solar energy. One of the first mass production plants
was in Camarillo, California operated by an oil company, ARCO.
They were doing R and D and selling to the small market for about $25 per watt of
Solar. When I bought my first new solar panel in 1995 it cost $300 for 55
watts, the same factory was then owned by Siemans, a German concern, and then
after a couple of years of no profit the factory sold to Shell Oil. BP also
tried to enter the market, but again oil was more profitable and buying
politicians to keep things dependent on oil and gas fueled cars was a better
investment. Shell oil sold to another German company Solar World. Solar World
AG, having been successful in Germany
with the German utility feed-in-tariff program (which Ontario Power has
modeled), thought they could operated in the north american market and have
successfully for about 12 years. They made a substantial investment in a brand
new manufacturing plant near Portland,
Oregon. They are industry leaders
in all the things any Green Party supporter would want to want to hear, End of
use recycling, non toxic manufacturing, recycling of manufacturing waste, fair
wages and working conditions for the staff, integrity in manufacturing, leading
warranties, and small carbon foot prints using hydro power to make a solar
future.

Now enters China
into the manufacturing.China knows top down it has a carbon problem from coal.
Coal probably passing through BC to the tune of more than 5 trains a day with
110-150 cars in each train (personal experience living in Revelstoke, BC), and
traveling to China to burn in electrical power plants and people are getting
sick. Top down china became leaders in wind energy in 3 years after starting
into it. Top down solar factories started appearing everywhere, not because
Chinese people were demanding solar energy, but because pollution and its cost
is a reality. The argument for tariff on Chinese manufactured solar modules is
because the Chinese government is making financing available to start-up a
factory and that is an unfair advantage in the international market.

Solar World and Suniva (Now going out of business) several years ago brought
the China dumping and
flooding the North American market to the attention of the US government.
The US
ended up putting tariffs on Chinese solar modules so the chinese manufacturing
just seemed to lower their prices. Now what could be better, you ask. Low cost
solar means more installations and a greening of our energy. Well there is more
to this. While some Chinese manufacturers score high marks on a set of social
and environmental criteria establish by the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, a
NGO determined to hold high tech responsible for how they manufacture, most don’t.
Our local school installer solar panels that were too cheap and you follow the
trail back and find they don’t even rank anywhere near green. Kids in China with lead
poison from eating fish out of the rivers below the solar plants. Black toxic
smoke spewed from factory incinerators. If you know the Lorax by Dr. Suess it
is the Oncesler Factories of solar.

So there are a lot of very dirty solar panels coming out of China. They are
being made in factories financed and subsidized in ways perceived as unfair in
the Capitalist so called democracies, and they can be made more cheaply because
they don’t have the same unions and labour laws or environmental safety laws in
China.
Still they are getting really cheap and that feel like Christmas!

I sell to customers that care about the environment first
and profit later, which is the state of things in BC. Because of this I talk my
customers into paying a little more and getting solar made just don’t the Columbia river rather than 12,000 kilometers away. Here
is my final statement. Solar World in Germany is sinking. Solar World in Oregon is not well. They
cannot compete and installers are running away from them out of fear of invalid
warranties. There will not be any solar manufacturing left in North
America if this keeps up. Evergreen solar (of Massachusetts) failed in 2009, now Suniva
and perhaps Solar World. Canadian Solar
is Canadian in name only. Made in China
with a few modules assembled in Ontario.
Canadaian Solar does not fair well with the Silicon Valley Toxics score card. Solar
World is ranked 2nd behind SunPower in California.

Tariffs may be the wrong choice, but failing to do a better
job than the Chinese at supporting the industry is what is happening. Our north
American governments could make it a case of national security that support
like interest free financing for factories, and incentives for installing
locally made panels that don’t get stopped by WTO laws. The reality is, that
isn’t happening and China, and S. Korea are going to steal the entire market
and we are going to be doing the equivalent of shopping Walmart for our solar
in a race to the bottom and that is not where I believe the values of the Green
Party are rooted. BC once had a company called Day4 Solar. Their market was
mostly Germany.
Now they are gone. Not competitive and we don’t have a solar industry. Stupid
we are, for shopping at Walmart. We don’t know how to make shoes anymore. We
don’t know how to make much of anything but paperwork and paper anymore. Shame
on us for not being happy with solar panels that cost $400 made in Oregon, and instead opt
for Chinese panels at $250 with “see no evil, hear no evil” as our excuse. Tariffs
are to try and keep the industry in North America
alive until another solution is found.

Ms. May, Please support Tariffs and then work to create a longer
term solution that brings clean tech solar manufacturing home!

Sincerely, Kip Drobish, Oso Solar, New Denver, BC

Thank you Elizabeth for keeping this issue in the light. Extremely high import tariffs >150% were recently introduced on drywall of all things -but only for Western Canada. If the government has the ability to chose where to implement a tariff, why penalize BC’s historic Pacific trade with China? There are no solar manufacturing jobs for thousands of kilometres from BC. The fact of the matter is that the best, the cleanest, and most competitive solar panels come from China. What would we do if the government put an export tariff on Apple products or other technologies. It would be stifling important competition and innovation especially for tariffs that are above 150%.