Hello all,
News that the Trump Administration will impose a 30 percent tariff on solar panels brought to mind Delaware’s once-promising solar industry.
It’s too early to estimate the impact of the tariffs, which are in response to China’s subsidies. It is worth noting the cost of solar panels has dropped so rapidly that the impact might not be that great, Bloomberg reported.
A Forbes piece claimed the move made nearly everyone in the industry unhappy, since higher panel prices will rattle down to installations.
The solar industry got off to a fast start in the 1990s when University of Delaware researcher Allen Barnett founded AstoPower, a pioneer solar panel maker.
The company ended up with hundreds of employees and expanded to Europe. Its collapse in the early 2000s was equally spectacular.
We saw a bankruptcy filing, as well as an empty AstroPower plant and headquarters in Glasgow, an area south of Newark. The site will soon be the home of a Del Monte fruit processing operation after an ill-fated effort to convert the structure into a middle school.
GE bought the remaining AstraPower assets and later sold the operation to Taiwan-based MoTech, which later closed the Glasgow site. It was said that MoTech kept the plant going because of projects that required U.S. made panels.
Meanwhile, President Obama imposed solar panel tariffs that did not seem to bring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. Instead, panels still poured into the U.S. and the industry blossomed.
Trump’s motivations are harder to discern.
Some see the tariffs as part of an effort to bring more manufacturing jobs. Others view the move as a way to slow down solar panel installations and perhaps keep more coal-fired power plants in operation.
Whatever the outcome, the days of solar manufacturing in Delaware have come and gone.
The impact of the tariffs in Delaware will come from less compelling economics when it comes to setting up solar panels for your business or home.
But if the Obama years are any indication, a slowdown will not mean a collapse.
Here’s hoping your day is on the sunny side. The newsletter returns tomorrow – Doug Rainey, publisher.
