Category Archives: Energy Policy


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Dumping China’s Solar Industry?

  1. Here is a Storify I built to breakdown the ongoing trade dispute between Chinese solar materials producers and solar materials manufacturers in the US and Europe.  
    For at least the last year, solar panel manufacturers in Europe and the United States have been complaining that Chinese companies are “dumping” solar panels on the European and American markets. What is dumping, what does it mean for the global solar panel industry, and what does it say about China’s economy?

  2. What is dumping?

    Simply put, dumping is selling a good or service below cost (i.e. at a loss).  European companies have been complaining that Chinese companies must be selling their products at a price below what it takes to make them, undercutting European producers and violating international trade agreements.

  3. German Solar Firm Blames Dumping

    Investors dumped shares in Solarworld AG Monday as Europe’s biggest solar-panel maker blamed its increasingly precarious financial positi…
    Wsj

  4. Why would a company dump a product and how are these companies managing it?

    The why is unclear, though the effect is clearly that a producer can take over an entire market in a other country by undercutting local producers and running them out of business.
    European companies are alleging that Chinese solar producers are leveraging generous loans and subsidies from Beijing to keep their companies afloat even as they lose money on the panels they are making.

  5. Who are the companies behind the complaints?

    There are coalitions of companies in both the U.S. and the EU, and both coalitions include a German solar panel firm Solarworld AG.  The company spearheaded the probe into Chinese companies accused of dumping in the European Union, and in the United States.  Solarworld’s stock has fallen 83% in the last year, and the company has had to scale back spending and production.  Other European companies are being affected, and many are saying they simply cannot compete.
    Europe is the world’s market for solar panels which may partly explain why the stakes are so high for European manufacturers.  Nevertheless, demand for solar panels is dropping in Germany, and the German government is reducing subsidies meant to support German manufacturers of panels.

  6. How are Chinese companies responding?

    Chinese companies and trade officials are upset at the probes and the resulting tariffs.  They contend that Chinese companies are not violating international trade agreements and that measures taken by Brussels and Washington have led to a glut of Chinese solar panels.

  7. China hits at EU solar panel dumping probe – FT.com

    Beijing has lashed out at the EU’s decision to launch a trade investigation into Chinese solar panels, calling the anti-dumping probe “re…
    Ft

  8. Chinese companies stand to dominate the global solar power industry?

    No, not at all.  Or, maybe, but not any time soon.
    First of all, much of the world’s polysilica–the materials used to make the wafers that make the panels-is itself made the United States.  Secondly, installation of panels is largely a local industry, and many American companies are actually seeing a surge in new orders for solar panel installations.  The availability of cheap Chinese solar panels actually seems to be fueling a boom in consumption, and many American companies that distribute and install panels are benefitting from increased business due to low import costs.

  9. Cheap Chinese Panels Fuel U.S. Solar Surge

    The solar-power business is expanding quickly in the U.S., though not from panel manufacturing. Instead, growth has come from installatio…
    Wsj
  10. Forbes.com Video Network | Fact And Comment: China Dumping Good For America
    Forbes

    Sun, Oct 21 2012 20:55:33

  11. Regardless of these bright spots, both the United States and the European Commission have begun to place tariffs on imports of Chinese solar panels.
  12. U.S. Sets Anti-Dumping Duties on China Solar Imports

    The U.S. Commerce Department set anti-dumping duties ranging from 18.32 percent to 249.96 percent on solar-energy cells imported from Chi…
    Bloomberg
  13. Chinese Solar-Panel Exporters Face Threat of EU Tariffs

    The European Union threatened to impose tariffs on solar panels from China in the biggest EU trade dispute of its kind, saying producers in Europe may be victims of unfair price undercutting. The EU opened a probe into whether Chinese manufacturers of solar panels sell them in the 27-nation bloc below cost, a practice known as dumping.
    Bloomberg
  14. The campaign by U.S. based solar panel manufacturers (and U.S. subsidiaries of foreign companies) has most recently resulted in tariffs on Chinese solar panels in the United States, ad the threat of tariffs loom over China solar panels in Europe.

  15. Free lunch?

    Beijing does not exactly release financial statements to the U.S. Commerce Department, so it is tough to ascertain the financial value of the loans the government has been handing to Chinese solar companies.  If Chinese solar companies are not making any money–due to falling demand, excess supply, or underselling the product, then this could spell trouble not only for solar panels, but for the Chinese financial apparatus.

  16. Debt Cloud Hangs Over Chinese Solar Industry

    BEIJING-Thanks to the steadfast support of local governments and banks, Chinese solar companies-unlike their Western counterparts-have been able to downplay concerns over mounting debt obligations. But raising the capital needed to turn themselves around may be tougher.
    Wsj
  17. I have more I want to add to this page, but in the meantime, I will end with this article from The Economist on the benefits of cheap solar technology in the developing world.
  18. Lighting the way

    WHICH plastic gadget, fitting neatly in one hand, can most quickly improve the lives of the world’s poorest people? For the past decade the answer has been clear: the mobile phone. But over the next decade it will be the solar-powered lamp, made up of a few light-emitting diodes (LEDs), a solar panel and a small rechargeable battery, encased in a durable plastic shell.
    Economist


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200 Countries Agree to Extend Kyoto Protocol–Too Bad it Won’t Make a Difference

Kyoto Protocol – Extended by the UN, but only Covers 15% of Global Emissions

The Kyoto Protocol, adopted in 1997 and effective in 2005 was a bold pledge by nations around the world to curb greenhouse gas emissions.  191 countries signed and ratified the Treaty, the only notable exception being the United States.  This would earn the US the reputation of being a rogue nation.

Writing for Time Magazine in 2001, Tony Karon described the situation thusly:

The Clinton administration was never happy with the terms of Kyoto, but it kept its negotiators at the table to grind away at the original treaty. President [George W.] Bush gambled that withdrawing from the negotiations — that is, removing the indispensable polluter — would force the international community back to the drawing board to seek an agreement more favorable to the U.S.’s gas-guzzling economy. But summary withdrawal from a decade-old process and failure at the same time to advance any alternative was read by the Europeans as a lack of seriousness.

And so the United States remained one country—along with Afghanistan, Andorra and South Sudan.

So it was a broad coalition of like-minded dissenters.

In 2006, even China was calling on the US to join the agreement.

But then in 2011, Canada became the first country to jump ship, certainly drawing criticism, and blaming its exit on the deal’s  inability to deal with the world’s two largest polluters: the United States, and China.

Meanwhile, since joining the treaty managed to become the world’s largest overall polluter.

Under the treaty, only fully industrialized nations were legally bound to reduce carbon emissions, neatly allowing large developing nations such as India and China to sign and ratify the treaty while excusing them from actually having to abide by its restrictions.

This, argued many, was the treaty’s fatal flaw.

Considering this, it almost seems amazing that any countries signed it at all.

Now, nearly 200 countries have agreed to extend the agreement, though Russia and New Zealand have opted out—and Canada and the US are not reconsidering their positions.

Now, the treaty will effectively only cover the countries—all 200 of them—that produce about 15% of the world’s carbon emissions.

This is a paltry number, however symbolically powerful the number of participants may be.

Clearly this system is not working, and the exemptions for large developing nations (who are rising economically and producing ever greater amounts of carbon) will continue to keep Russia, Canada and the US out of any agreement that will limit their abilities to remain economically competitive.

Though China is now the world’s largest carbon emitter, the amount of carbon emissions per capita is still significantly smaller than that of the US, though it is equal with the European Union’s and is still growing rapidly.

World governments can sign as many treaties as they like, but without some way to capture that remaining 85% they might find it is not the best use of another precious resource—paper.