Solar Tariff Would Cost 50,000 US Job Losses (FSLR, SPWR)

A US industry-group that opposes the trade case filed against Chinese solar panel makers commissioned a study to provide an estimate of the number of job losses such a tariff would cost the US. The study, donw by the Brattle Group, figures 50,000 jobs over three years. An additional 11,000 US jobs would be jeopardized by nearly certain retaliatory tariffs on the Chinese government’s side.

The study’s sponsor, the Coalition for Affordable Solar Energy, represents primarily installers and makers of all the pieces that go into a solar project except the panels themselves. The panel makers, led by the US division of Germany’s Solarworld AG which has about 1,400 employees in the US, filed the complaint late last year.

Virtually all solar panels are manufactured in Asia where tens of thousands of Chinese, Thais, and Filipinos are employed on assembly lines owned or leased by US companies like First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) and Sunpower Corp. (NASDAQ: SPWR). The solar installers’ group represents hundreds of mostly small businesses that are happy with the low US prices for solar panels because it means more work and more profit for them.