Trump to impose 30 percent tariff on solar cell imports

[BBQ]

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Trump to impose 30 percent tariff on solar cell imports

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/22/trum...l-imports.html


Buy your solar panels now while the prices are still good.

[mloganusda]

Last year I purchased a 100 watt panel from Home Depot for $109+tax to match my 100 watt panel on my Trend MH. Also purchased mounting feet and matching wiring for the controller recital on the roof.

MLogan
Smyrna, TN

[indoorsy]

I've been thinking about all the NAFTA chatter this week and wondering if buying a Canadian made MH (i.e.: the Hymer Aktiv) will become a more expensive proposition if there is some sort of import tax slapped onto it.

As it stands interest on a Home Equity Line of credit will no longer be tax deductible. I opened one last year to fund my RV purchase. Interest is still deductible for home improvements but no longer for indebtedness. Oh well, working through Plan B on funding the camper. No sense to pay 3.75% interest if its not deductible.

[wincrasher]

If you were going to buy some solar panels this year, I'd do it now.

What the tariff will do in the short term is make all panels more expensive. The US suppliers will get some pressure relief on holding down their prices, so inevitably theirs will rise too. I'm a big fan of the US suppliers, as their QC seems to be better, and their panel efficiencies higher. But most folks buy on price.

In the long term, what it will do is destroy the US solar industry and result in job loss (some say ~20,000). Most of their output is exported. That export business will collapse because others will tax our panels, and the Chinese panels still remain much cheaper outside the US.

Funny I was thinking the other day that Al Gore was right back in 2000. He was saying that we had a narrow window to dominate the emerging environmental industries. We collectively scoffed at that idea and retreated, and the Chinese leaped at the opportunity. Unless there is some new leap in technology yet to be exploited, I'm afraid our standing in solar is on the decline.

[BBQ]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EubTRknKnhk