guay, the information in the article on tariffs is misleading. Just because the commerce department recommends reducing the tariff doesn't mean it will happen, and all indicators are that it will not. I've seen module prices spike a nickle a watt in just over six months.....this hurts my business badly. Two of the World's largest manufacturers either have or are in the process of dropping the American market, (Yingli and Canadian Solar....expect Trina to withdraw as well) due to the tariffs. I have jobs sold out through the end of June that I bid with modules that I can no longer get at prices that are no longer available. Can you imaging trying to effect a business plan in a volatile market like this?
And before anyone claims that this is a good thing consider how significantly higher system prices will affect the integration market (where 9 out of every 10 people are employed in the broader market). In order to protect one or two American manufacturer (Solar World, a German company, and maybe FirstSolar if you consider them a true American manufacturer.....they have plants in Ohio, Germany, and Malaysia) we have sucker punched all the integrators and distributors, who now are in emergency mode trying to find enough modules to satisfy their demand.
I just can't swap out a module that costs me $0.79/watt for a module costing $0.93 to $0.98/watt which can add nearly $1000 to a 6kW system. The market in Vermont simply will not bear adding 1 to 2 years to a system payback. Sure, people will still install PV systems, but why on Earth do we want to enact legislation making just about the only real job growth sector in the US more expensive? And this will hurt XsunX too!
I say let the Chinese make modules.....they do a better job anyway (manufacturing plants are the most modern in the World!), and screw American manufacturing in this sector. I'm not unpatriotic (in fact, you'd have a hard time finding anyone in America that loves The United States more then me), I just believe in free markets and in letting people do what they do best, and China makes the best modules for the lowest cost.....American solar module manufactures will always be plagued by onerous regulatory and wage restrictions, which means the only sales market they have left is America.....imagine if we did this to the auto industry! Congress does none of us any favors when they step in with knee-jerk legislation designed to protect an noncompetitive manufacturer in a global market. In fact, from my perspective, Congress does absolutely nothing right, but that's a subject for another (and much longer) post.
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