Title of Dissertation: national renewable energy policy

Figure 13. 
Policy risks by source, 2006-2015. 
Solar module manufacturers have perceived that more policies have acted as a 
barrier to conduct their business in an efficient manner. Mainly, two factors have affected 
this increasing trend of inefficiency of policies: the trade protectionist actions of 
governments and the solar module manufacturers’ expansion to project development 
business.
Under the struggling solar market after the global financial crisis, governments 
have introduced measures to protect domestic solar PV industry. The solar module 
imported from China was one of the main issues. On October 19, 2011, the U.S. solar 
module manufacturers filed a petition against Chinese solar module producers of selling 
their products less than the fair value with the U.S. Department of Commerce. This 
resulted in the issuance of the antidumping duty order and countervailing duty order in 
2012. In December 2013, the Council of European Union decided imposing antidumping 
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Uncertainty
Inefficiency
Incompatibility
Other
(Number of codes)

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and anti-subsidy duties on imported Chinese cells and modules after a one-year 
investigation. In 2012, India has started antidumping investigations on solar cells from 
China, the U.S., Malaysia, and Taiwan.
China-based solar module manufacturers have showed much concern on the 
negative impact of the anti-dumping measures since a significant portion of their revenue 
is generated from outside of China. For instance, Yingli Green Energy, one of the China-
based manufacturers, had acquired more than 80% of its revenue from European market 
until 2010 (Figure 14). One of the other Chinese manufacturers, Suntech, said in its 2012 
annual report: “Any determination of duties and tariffs against importation of our 
modules into the United States and Europe could render us unable to sell modules in 
these countries that could impact our sales, business operations, competitiveness, and 
profitability.” Since the measures are decided by each government, the module 
manufacturers could not make sure if they will not be negatively impacted by the 
measures even if they believe that they did not violate any trade rules. Trina Solar said in 
its 2014 report: “Although our policy requires that all of our export sales comply with 
international trade practices, we cannot guarantee that the government agencies in the 
jurisdictions in which actions are brought will reach the same conclusion.”

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