Oklahoma might not have the biggest solar industry in the country but its operators still wonder how the newly-imposed solar tariffs will affect them.
“I’m sure it’ll have a little bit of an effect as far as pricing,” said Chris Gary with Sun City Solar in Oklahoma City. He was interviewed by News 9.
“Any tariff would but as far as the solar industry here and across the U.S., I don’t anticipate it affecting it greatly at all. But it’s still kind of early,” added Gary.
He’s like every other solar company operator in the country, left wondering how the new tariffs on solar cells and modules might affect their business. The tariffs were largely opposed by many in the renewable energy industry who contend they will threaten to raise solar farm project costs. Maybe even hurt the rapid employment growth in the industry.
The 30 percent tariffs are largely aimed at curtailing the competition from cheap Chinese imports. The Trump administration claims those imports contributed to the collapse of nearly two dozen American solar companies.
The impact of the 30 percent tariff remains uncertain. The manufacturers that requested a trade investigation last year say the tariffs give them a fighting chance against foreign competitors. But much of the industry warns that they will push up project costs and make building solar energy farms less attractive.
“The fact is that if you put high tariffs on solar panels you’re going to kill demand for solar,” Abigail Ross Hopper, CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association, told CNBC in an interview prior to the decision. “We grew our jobs 17 times faster than the rest of the economy.”
Imposing tariffs could create as many as 6,400 solar manufacturing positions, but job losses in other parts of the industry would almost certainly exceed those gains, an independent analysis by Bloomberg New Energy Finance performed for Utility Dive found.
Nonmanufacturing jobs account for about 85 percent of the U.S. solar workforce, including electricians, welders and engineers designing and building the solar farms.