The U.S.’s biggest solar manufacturer, has publicly voiced support for Auxin but isn’t a party to the petition, said “Everything is at a knife’s edge here,” saidĬEO of Starwood Energy Group, a private-equity firm that funds and develops energy projects, noting that solar developers can’t be sure when they will get panels or how much they will cost. trade group, warned that what it called the “Auxin tariff” could lower projected solar deployment by 48% this year.
The Solar Energy Industries Association, a U.S. Said many of their solar projects are facing monthslong delays. As economists warn that limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius will cost many more trillions than anticipated, WSJ looks at how the funds could be spent, and who would pay. Money is a sticking point in climate-change negotiations around the world. Told a Senate panel last week that her “hands are very tied” on probing the complaint’s allegations, but she said the department would move as fast as possible. senators sent a letter to President Biden on Sunday, saying the probe is causing “massive disruption in the solar industry” and asking for the case to be speedily closed. Since the Commerce Department agreed to investigate, the complaint has halted panel shipments from Southeast Asia to the U.S., according to utilities and trade groups, because makers overseas worry that they could be hit retroactively with extra duties.Ī group of 22 U.S. Workers passed completed panels through large lamination machines and let them cool before transferring them to stacks of panels in a dark corner. Some monitored machines stringing together solar cells while others soldered parts by hand. Orders are slow and the company is running one shift a day instead of three.ĭuring a recent visit to Auxin’s factory, located in a San Jose industrial park, some workers were assembling panels.
Rashid said it is running at around 30% of that capacity.Īuxin workers on the factory floor. Auxin can produce 150 megawatts of panels a year, less than what a single, large-scale utility project would typically require. Rashid said Auxin had less than $10 million in revenue last year and managed to make a slight profit. tariffs by routing their operations through those Southeast Asian countries.Īfter that petition was rejected because its proponents wouldn’t say who they were, Auxin, which had been a member of the group, decided to try again on its own and in the open, according to a person familiar with the matter. solar manufacturers filed an anonymous petition to the Commerce Department, saying Chinese manufacturers were evading U.S. solar companies depended on for their projects, according to trade associations. But production instead shifted to Southeast Asian countries such as Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia, which last year manufactured nearly half of the cells and 80% of the panels that U.S. has tried to keep some solar manufacturing at home by levying tariffs on the solar cells and panels that are the final stages of production, including steep duties on Chinese makers. Chinese manufacturers make around 63% of the polysilicon used in most solar panels globally, and more than two-thirds of the wafers that are the next step in the manufacturing process, according to energy consulting firm Wood Mackenzie.įor the past decade, the U.S. The furor over the petition by Auxin, a privately held company based in San Jose, Calif., highlights how dependent the American solar industry is on foreign supplies, most of which are controlled by Chinese companies that can produce large volumes at low prices. “But are we going to look the other way on not abiding by U.S. “The last thing I would want to do is take an action that hurts” the renewables industry, he added, saying that meeting the climate challenge is important to him. Rashid, a former Silicon Valley microchip engineer who said in past years he has sold a treasured Porsche and drained his 401(k) to keep the solar company afloat.
“Somebody called me a couple days ago and said our name is very toxic in the industry,” said Mr. A recent tour of his factory showed roughly 30 workers making panels.Īs a result of the controversy, he said, his employees have been hassled, his computer servers have been hacked and strange cars have been circling his factory. Said in an interview that the company is funding the petition itself, seeking to stop unfair trade practices that have hurt American manufacturers. An Auxin Solar worker repairing broken cells.