"If we are to succeed, we need American manufacturers like Convalt to survive this onslaught of low prices, to build factories with capacities that allow us to compete against the largest global firms, with Chinese beneficial ownership," CEO Hari Achuthan said in May in testimony to the U.S. International Trade Commission, a government agency that is considering a request by Korea's Hanwha Qcells and other U.S. manufacturers to impose new tariffs on some solar imports.
Convalt's plant would make panels plus the cells, wafers and ingots that go into them, but progress stalled a year ago as global panel prices plunged 50% to levels below Convalt's cost of production, he said.
"Had we not had these low prices we should be up and running today," Achuthan said.
The Department of Energy told Reuters that developing a domestic solar supply chain would take time and that the U.S. must rely on foreign businesses for their expertise.
'COMMITTED TO BE HERE'

Chinese companies, by far the top suppliers of solar and electric-vehicle battery components imported to the U.S., now account for one-fifth of the solar factories announced since the U.S. adopted new climate subsidies, according to research firm Wood Mackenzie.
The United States has tried to ease its import addiction to Chinese solar products with tariffs, and has also banned goods linked to China's Xinjiang region over concerns about forced labor. It is now considering new duties on components made in other Asian countries where Chinese manufacturers have set up.
Chinese companies building factories in the U.S. so far are mainly investing in module production, in which solar cells imported from Asia are assembled into panels.
Longi, the world's third-biggest solar producer, for example, is pumping out panels in Pataskala, Ohio through a joint venture with U.S. clean-energy developer Invenergy called Illuminate USA. The five-gigawatt plant is among the largest announced since passage of the IRA, and the company is also exploring the possibility of building a cell facility.
"Illuminate USA is an American company, majority owned by Invenergy, who owns both the facility and the land where over 1,000 Ohioans will produce more than nine million high-quality solar panels annually at full capacity later this year," Illuminate spokesman Eric Heis said in a statement.
Trina, the No. 4 global manufacturer, plans to start a five-GW panel factory in Texas this year, and is also planning a cell facility.
"We are committed to be here and we are spending a lot of time and money to make that a reality," said Mike Nelson, head of legal for Trina's North American business.
Trina said its U.S. subsidiary is a U.S.-registered company that sources the polysilicon it uses to produce its equipment from European and U.S. sources.
While Chinese producers face opposition from some other U.S. factory owners, panel-buying U.S. project developers interested in low-cost supply welcome them.
The American Clean Power Association, a clean-energy trade group, said the U.S. solar-manufacturing sector is attracting global and domestic investment. It said U.S.-headquartered companies make up most of the operating and planned panel production.
Top U.S. producers, Hanwha Qcells and Arizona-based First Solar (FSLR.O), opens new tab, are pushing for the U.S. to impose new tariffs on component and equipment imports from countries where their Chinese rivals have built factories to supply the U.S.
"We're just asking for legitimate U.S. manufacturers to have a chance to compete with these gigantic Chinese-owned companies," said Tim Brightbill, attorney for the American Alliance for Solar Manufacturing Trade Committee, the group seeking new tariffs.
The group's rivals argue that placing duties on some cell imports and not others is unfair and will stifle construction of U.S. factories.

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Reporting by Nichola Groom; Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Rod Nickel

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/many-us-solar-factories-are-lagging-except-those-china-owns-2024-07-17/