Solar 201 Safeguard Will Create at Least 114,800 New Jobs Across the Entire U.S. Solar Sector, reports Mayer Brown and Wiley Rein
Economic analysis shows that imposing an effective remedy in the Solar 201 Safeguard case will result in a net increase of over 114,800 new jobs across all segments of the U.S. solar industry. An effective remedy that creates the opportunity for the U.S. solar manufacturing industry to invest and grow would create 45,000 new U.S. manufacturing jobs.
“We need to ensure that the next generation of solar technology is developed here in the United States,” said Juergen Stein, CEO of SolarWorld Americas Inc. “In order to have a strong solar industry, America needs to have a strong solar manufacturing industry. With growth in manufacturing will come investment, R&D, and many thousands of additional solar industry jobs here in America.”
“This is about bringing investment back to the U.S. solar manufacturing sector. A healthy industry should create jobs in the entire value chain, including manufacturing, said Matt Card, Suniva’s Executive Vice President of Commercial Operations. “This conservative analysis, using well-established U.S. Department of Commerce formulas, shows that this safeguard action can create huge impact in the manufacturing sector, even as we continue to see tremendous growth in solar installations.”
Relying on analysis based on a publicly available model developed by the Department of Commerce and GTM Research, this analysis shows that:
100,000 New Non-Manufacturing Jobs: Non-manufacturing jobs in the U.S. solar industry would increase by nearly 100,000 including over 65,000 installation jobs.
45,000 New Manufacturing Jobs: Stabilization of U.S. prices that allows the United States to add even modest levels of new solar cell and module production capacity would create over 45,000 new manufacturing jobs.
Capacity Doubles by 2022: Installed solar capacity in the United States increases every year between 2018 and 2022, with total installed capacity more than doubling by 2022.
$3.3 Billion in New Wages: Capacity expansion will generate $2.5 billion in additional economic output and $3.3 billion in new wages.
This analysis shows that an effective remedy would stabilize prices in the U.S. market, ensuring American workers can compete against the surge in low-priced imports. Failure to impose a remedy would effectively concede the U.S. solar cell manufacturing industry, an industry created by American companies, to Asian competitors – leaving Americans to depend solely on these imports to generate solar electricity. Reliance on solar imports will create a cartel, ultimately resulting in higher prices in the long run for consumers, installers and project developers.
