> On October 18, the U.S. government was asked to impose tariffs on imports of Chinese solar cells and modules, based on the argument that China-based producers have been heavily subsidized and are selling solar products at unfairly low prices.<p>So the Chinese government wants to sell us renewable energy infrastructure below cost. Sounds great to me.
<i>many solar markets around the world have reached grid parity</i><p>I'm not one who watches alternative energy technolgies closely, but this statement screams out for further substantiation. Examples. Which markets? At least citations of reputable reporting on this. Because it strikes me as patently unbelievable.
The story, as told to me by a guy that is very connected in the US solar industry: 1) SolarWorld, a German company, filed a complaint with the US government. 2) A bureaucrat in DC thought it would be a good idea to take the complaint seriously. 3) Now growth in the solar industry, in both China and the US, may be hurt due to the possible trade war.<p>Some background:
<a href="http://www.electroiq.com/articles/pvw/2011/10/solarworld-files-complaint-against-chinese-panelmakers-cell-manufacturers.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.electroiq.com/articles/pvw/2011/10/solarworld-fil...</a><p>It seems, if you are for free trade, this is a bad thing.
GE has said that the price of Solar Panels is _almost_ to the point at which they are prepared to enter the market aggressively [1] - and when they do, they will drive the price _down_ so as to increase market adoption to the point where very large manufacturing facilities make sense.<p>This crying over the increase in the performance/price curve seems somewhat ironic - if the Chinese Government has been actually providing subsidies to it's domestic manufacturers, it will have to really step up and start subsidizing american consumers as the prices drop further.<p>Some things make sense to manufacture in other countries.<p>This is good for American Consumers, and, as a result of Solar Energy Adoption (which is a hairs breadth of being less expensive than _non_ adjusted carbon files per kilowatt hour, just wait until we see a carbon tax) great for the environment.<p>[1] <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20125872-54/ge-solar-panels-will-be-as-easy-to-install-as-new-roof/" rel="nofollow">http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20125872-54/ge-solar-panel...</a>