Solar industry has a China problem

S.A. panel maker says competition burning U.S. firms

For nearly a decade, Mission Solar Energy has been swimming against an Asian tide. The company, which produces solar systems predominantly for homes at its manufacturing plant on the South Side, is among the few solar panel manufacturers based in the U.S.

That’s something President Joe Biden is trying to change.

The Biden administration has pushed recently to boost domestic production of solar panels as the U.S. races to generate more clean electricity and reduce dependence on fossil fuels. And while the effort will likely fall short of completely overtaking Asian-based players, for U.S. manufacturers like Mission Solar that have long been unable to compete with global factories, it’s a start.

In February, Auxin Solar, a small solar panel manufacturer based in San Jose, Calif., filed a petition with the U.S. Department of Commerce that claimed solar panels imported from Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Malaysia — markets that account for more than 80 percent of U.S. solar imports — are actually made in China and assembled in those nations to illegally circumvent tariffs on Chinese goods. The Obama administration placed tariffs on Chinese solar technology more than 10 years ago.

Since the Commerce Department began investigating Auxin’s claim, solar panel makers in those four nations stopped shipping panels to the U.S. for fear they may face a tariff that would significantly raise costs.

Biden this month invoked the Defense Production Act to marshal resources for solar panel production stateside. Meanwhile, to satisfy the other side of the industry — solar installers and utilities looking for the lowest-cost panels available — Biden announced a two-year freeze on tariffs on solar imports from Southeast Asia, a move meant to enable projects in the pipeline to continue without the financial burden of added tariffs.

Biden’s two-pronged announcement “gives businesses certainty to accelerate projects delayed by the Department of Commerce’s anti-circumvention investigation,” the Solar Energy Industries Association said in a statement. “Without this action, massive project delays and cancellations would have continued throughout 2022.”

Can’t compete

Faced for years with competing against less expensive imported solar panels, Mission Solar had to lay off nearly 90 workers in late 2016 and consolidate its operations. Mission Solar would no longer build its own solar cells, the small black squares needed to assemble

solar panels. Instead, Mission Solar scrapped its cell production line and began buying them from China.

Today, Mission Solar sources most of its components and raw materials from Asian countries such as Taiwan and Vietnam. Rows of solar glass shipped from Malaysia are stacked in the storage room at Mission’s plant.

In many ways, Mission Solar reflects the underdog nature of U.S. solar manufacturers. It controls about 7 percent of the U.S. residential solar market. And Mission executives say openly: American-made panels cost more than imports.

A Mission Solar home system costs about $1,000 more than those that use imported solar technology, said Paul Mutchler, director of operations for Mission Solar. A home solar panel system costs about $30,000.

“We know we cannot compete on price,” he said. “So we compete on quality, pride and American workmanship.”

It’s widely known that Chinese companies evade U.S. tariffs by sending solar equipment to facilities in nearby

Sam Owens / Staff photographer Chinese-made solar panels sell “for less than I can buy the material for,” says Mission Solar Energy executive Paul Mutchler, who supports the Solar Energy Manufacturing Act.

Materials move down the production line at Mission Solar Energy’s facility on the South Side. Mission Solar sources most of its components and raw materials from Asia.

Sam Owens / Staff photographer