Large companies investing in projects related to renewable energies, canceled or froze more than $2.5 billion. the Reason for this decision was the introduction by the administration of Donald trump’s new tariffs on imports from China.
In January of this year, the President of the United States has imposed duties on imports of U.S. solar panels at a rate of about 30%. Basically the new rates affect China, which produces large quantities of batteries, including those for the American market. According to the administration trump, such action must protect the American manufacturers.
But investors believe that the imposition of duties carries other consequences: freeze construction or expansion of factories for the production of solar energy. While most of the representatives of this sphere in the beginning of 2018 said that such a move would hamper the development of one of the fastest growing sectors of America.
Suffered and the labour market. The representative of the leading company of solar installations Renewables LLC Cypress Creek Jeff McKay said they have been forced to freeze $1.5 billion, which were invested in the projects (mostly in Carolina, Texas and Colorado), because their cost is increased, and is now the company’s competitiveness fell. According to him, it touched 150 projects at different stages of development, which would need about 3 thousand new employees.
According to the energy information Administration of the United States (U.S. Energy Information Administration), in the solar energy sector employs more than 250 thousand people — about 3 times more than in the coal industry.
«Solar energy really was on the verge of a complete take-off» — says Zoe Hanes, Executive Director of the company Solar Gate Pine Renewables in North Carolina.
