Suntech Power on Financial Brink - NYTimes.com - 0 views
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Suntech announced Tuesday that it was closing its factory in Goodyear, Arizona, at the cost of 43 jobs there. The factory put aluminum frames and electrical junction boxes on solar cells imported from China, so that the fully assembled solar panels would qualify for “Buy American” programs.
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But China’s approach to renewable energy has proved ruinous, both financially and in terms of trade relations with the United States and the European Union. State-owned banks have provided $18 billion in loans on easy terms to Chinese solar panel manufacturers, financing an increase of more than tenfold in production capacity from 2008 to 2012. This set off a 75 percent drop in panel prices over the same period, which resulted in Chinese companies’ losing as much as $1 for every $3 in sales last year.
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he United States has responded with tariffs of about 40 percent on solar cells and solar panels from China,