John Kerry, the President’s special climate ambassador, seen at a press conference last week. (Photo: [+] Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
President Biden’s new “climate czar” John Kerry said that laid-off workers in the fossil fuel industry should be able to easily convert their skills into solar energy. He specifically stated that they can “manufacture solar panels” without having to manufacture the Keystone pipeline that Biden cancelled on the second day of his tenure at the White House.
Carey said: “What President Biden wants to do is to ensure that these people have better choices, they have alternative options, and they can become people who work in solar panel production.”
But before anyone says “they can make solar panels” is the new “learn to code”, please wait a moment.
These can indeed be jobs provided by unions. This is a growth industry. Unlike fossil fuels, fossil fuels are currently the most annoying industry in Congress and World Economic Forum jets.
Unlike computer science, solar jobs are manufacturing jobs that do not require STEM degrees from Stanford University and MIT. I will never learn to code and build a blockchain platform or build a new holographic phone. I can hardly stop the fan of the laptop and make a sound. But I bet I can learn to run machines that make solar cells and modules.
If Kerry wants to fire Keystone workers to “manufacture” solar panels, the government he serves will have to take some measures to protect the US market from the flood of solar panels in China.
Digitally generated images of futuristic urban landscapes, including skyscrapers and solar energy… [+] The vertical gardens on the panels may all be made in China.
Among the world’s top ten solar panel manufacturers, eight are Chinese. The only major company in the United States is First Solar FSLR headquartered in Ohio. The solar cells and modules they make become the solar panels you see in the Southwest Desert, the tops of California mountains, and more and more American rooftops.
Hanwha Q-Cells from South Korea are manufactured here. It’s the same as Jinko Solar, a Chinese company now manufactured in Jacksonville, Florida. The main reason they set up stores was the anti-dumping and countervailing duties imposed on solar panels in the Trump era. This helps Q-Cells and First Solar win the market here. Otherwise, they are all imported from China. If they are all imported from China, then the only work provided is the performance of installers, and the usual white-collar professional services of project planners, sales staff and engineering consultants.
If the United States does what solar importers want-all of them are Chinese-then it is mainly people drilling solar panels on the roof or cleaning them with Windex. (This is a joke.)
That would be the terrible “Green New Deal”. But this is a good Red New Deal. (I just registered it as a trademark.)
On Tuesday, February 2, 2021, an employee works at a solar panel and parts factory in Jiujiang City, Jiangxi Province, central China. (Photo: Feature China / Barcroft Media via Getty Images)
Jeff said: “The recent wave of investment and capacity expansion announced by China’s largest solar energy manufacturer threatens the recovery of (US solar energy) with huge overcapacity, which will force manufacturers to withdraw from the business and contribute to the entire solar power manufacturing supply chain. Establish China’s dominance.” On January 28, Ferry, chief economist of the American Wealthy Alliance, in a report.
Large Chinese solar multinational companies (such as Jinko and JA Solar) have announced new expansion projects in Southeast Asia as part of the Chinese Communist Party’s industrial strategy to dominate the main Western supply chain.
The United States and the European Union have been telling Chinese leaders that they are afraid of melting ice and super storms, and China responded: “Let us be your green OPEC.”
As a result, China is now the key to the electric vehicle battery supply chain (it controls many of the mining materials used to make battery cells). Leading the solar supply chain; and replacing Europe as the first choice for wind turbines.
Many European brands such as Vestas are now made in China, although they are currently reportedly still in China.
PV Tech, a solar industry publication, called China’s solar expansion “astonishing.”
By 2020, China has the capacity to produce 90 gigawatts of solar panel electricity. This year, they will have an installed capacity of 180 GW.
Looking at it, Brazil’s Itaipu Dam is the second largest hydroelectric dam in the world, powering more than half of the country and generating 14 GW.
China’s Three Gorges Dam, the world’s largest, has a power generation capacity of 22.5 GW. Therefore, if China is to fully produce solar energy, its installed solar capacity is equivalent to manufacturing eight Three Gorges dams.
1366 Technologies, headquartered in Massachusetts, is developing new solar technology. In order to develop solar energy… [+]Manufacturing base, not only innovation must be done here. Innovating and then manufacturing in Asia will not make Keystone employees “manufacture solar panels.” (Photo by Rick Friedman/Corbis via Getty Images)
Last year, under the leadership of First Solar and Q-Cells, the US installed capacity was 12.2 GW. It is expected to increase to 14.7 GW this year. We have taken baby steps. China makes Super Mario jump three times in a row.
Thanks to Article 201 tariffs in 2018, US solar manufacturers have been growing steadily in the past two years. The tariffs are designed to restrict the import of solar modules worldwide, not just to China.
About a dozen smaller companies have once again brought American innovations into the solar field, which has increased production capacity by 5 GW. What usually happens is to innovate here and then promote it to Asia to lower prices. Then, China commercialized it, and the field was dominated by service providers.
The goal of many American manufacturers is to expand production. However, if China floods the market and hopes to take advantage of Biden’s climate change policy, all of these will be subverted. More demand here is good for China because currently American companies cannot meet this demand. They can invest to meet this demand and create more blue-collar jobs, even union jobs, which are the kind of jobs that Keystone lost.
The Section 201 tariff will soon be reduced to 18%, which may not be enough to protect American suppliers, because American suppliers can easily be overvalued by any products made in China or Southeast Asia. If this happens, the climate-friendly “Better Rebuild” Biden government will face the decision of whether to build a solar future here, or import it and create jobs in China, Malaysia and Vietnam.
The bipartisan consensus on China is growing, and this can be seen even in the Trump-Biden war.
Both parties now recognize that the United States must deal with the risks China poses to the US economy and national security. Florida Senator Marco Rubio said in a recent column in the Washington Post that Congress and the Trump administration have made progress in correcting the serious imbalance in US-China relations over the past four years.
“The choice Biden faces is simple: support American workers and our national security, or support Wall Street and the CCP,” Rubio wrote.
In the Senate hearing about Biden’s important cabinet members, Janet Yellen, Anthony Brinken, Pete Buttigieg and Gina Raimundo all made climate change part of the key tasks in their new duties . People also talked about China and domestic manufacturing.
Solar energy is on the rise in the United States, but unless Washington makes a clear request, it will all be made in China. If you want to install solar panels on your house, you can buy them anywhere. However, if you are the governor of a state and want to place solar panels on state land to generate electricity, everything from polysilicon to finished products should be manufactured here. If that doesn’t happen, then it won’t, and Keystone Pipeline workers will not find work with solar panels.
I have been the best business reporter for 20 years, including the Wall Street Journal staff in Brazil. Since 2011, I have focused on the business and investment of large enterprises
I have been the best business reporter for 20 years, including the Wall Street Journal staff in Brazil. Since 2011, I have focused on business and invested specifically in emerging markets for Forbes. My work has appeared in the “Boston Globe”, “Country”, “Salon” and “USA Today”. Guest of the BBC. Former holder of FINRA 7 and 66 series.