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U.S. Solar Market Insight Report, 2013 Year-in-Review, Executive
Summary
(2013) ; Kann, S. et al.,
U.S. Solar Market Insight Report, Q1 2015
(2015)
110
The Solar Foundation,
National Solar Jobs Census 2015
. Washington DC. 2016.
http://www.thesolarfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/TSF-2015-National-
Solar-Jobs-Census.pdf.
87
corporations to become bankrupt or be acquired by other companies in recent years. From
2011 to 2014, 71 solar corporations went bankrupt, and 31 companies were acquired by
other companies globally, including many U.S. corporations.
111
China’s supply of solar
products was one of the critical factors affecting the struggles of the solar market. Low-
priced solar products started being imported from China into the U.S. in 2010. The
annual growth rate of imported Chinese solar products imported into the U.S. was 146%
in 2010, and 115% in 2011.
112
Under these circumstances and perceiving an unfair trade approach from China,
the U.S. solar manufacturers became active in trying to shape trade policy to their
advantage. In October 2011, SolarWorld headquartered in Germany, and six U.S. solar
panel manufacturers submitted a petition concerning solar panels imported from China.
They claimed that heavily subsidized Chinese solar panels were illegally dumped in the
United States. As a result, the U.S. Commerce Department announced to impose
antidumping tariff on Chinese solar panels on December 10, 2012.
This case is interesting in that solar companies attempted to solve a challenge in
the market by affecting a trade policy rather than a renewable energy policy.
Traditionally, issues of renewable energy have been discussed in the context of
renewable energy policies such as government supports. This antidumping tariff case
infers that renewable energy issues need to be considered in broader contexts at this
point.
111
Wesoff, E., 2014. “Rest in Peace: The Fallen Solar Companies of 2014,”
http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/Honoring-the-fallen-solar-soldiers
(December 1, 2014)
112
United States International Trade Commission, Interactive Tariff and Trade DataWeb.
Available at: https://dataweb.usitc.gov (Accessed April 28, 2016).
88
This chapter investigates how diverse actors have framed the renewable energy
trade issue through examining the case of the U.S-China solar panel trade issue. While
Chapter 3 focused on corporate individual reactions to the external environment, this
chapter focuses on the reactions of the domestic and international corporations as
political groups. Chapter 3 showed that each solar multinational has tried to adapt to the
external environment under rapidly changing market. This finding did not support the
prediction of the multinationals’ co-evolution literatures, which was that solar
multinationals would try to change the external environment. Solar multinationals had
barely attempted to change the external environment at least as an individual actor. Then,
how do they react to the changing environment as political groups? This chapter answers
this question. Due to the significance of the U.S. market in the global solar market and
the diversity of organizations and groups that have participated in the policy debates on
solar trade, the U.S.-China solar trade dispute can be used as an example of corporations’
actions as political groups.
Previous literature showed that issue fields, which were created to address new
social concern, evolve based upon the existing matured fields. In this sense, the central
actors of matured fields frame the new problem with their logics.
113
Based upon the
literature, the proposition is suggested:
The central domestic actors of a renewable
energy field have framed renewable energy trade issues with a traditional environmental
frame
.
To reveal the political interactions on the U.S.-China solar panel trade issue, a
113
O’Sullivan, Niamh, and Brendan O’Dwyer. "The structuration of issue-based fields:
Social accountability, social movements and the Equator Principles issue-based field."
Accounting, Organizations and Society
43 (2015): 33-55.
89
discourse network analysis was conducted with the newspaper articles from the U.S. top
seven newspapers. The data was restricted to U.S. newspapers under the assumption that
influential actors on the U.S policy issue communicate with the U.S. media. The
coalitions revealed by the discourse network analysis show the political interactions and
framings of various actors on the U.S.-China solar panel trade issue.
Trade disputes on solar panels between the U.S. and China
On October 19, 2011, SolarWorld and six other U.S. solar manufacturers
submitted a petition to the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. International
Trade Commission against Chinese solar manufacturers’ trade practices. The petition
requested the federal government to impose duties on Chinese imports of solar cells and
modules to offset the subsidies from the Chinese government. The petitioners argued that
Chinese solar manufacturers benefitted from the subsidies including “massive cash
grants; significantly discounted raw material inputs, such as polysilicon and aluminum;
heavily discounted or free land, power and water; multi-billion-dollar preferential loans
and directed credit; extensive tax exemptions, incentives and rebates; export assistance
credits; and export insurance at preferential rates”.
114
The import of solar products from China has significantly increased in 2009.
From 2009 to 2011, the import from China has increased by more than five times (Figure
17). Even if the rising trends of imports from all countries are considered, the growth rate
of the import from China is noteworthy. This sharp increase has caused large trade deficit
114
“U.S. Solar Industry Files Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Cases Against
Imports of Solar Cells and Modules from China,” http://www.wileyrein.com/newsroom-
pressreleases-555.html (October 19, 2011)
90
in 2011 (Figure 18). The trade deficit with the world has generated by dramatically
increased deficit with China.
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