Bid to revive solar factories faces job-killer

A bankrupt Norcross, Ga., company is pushing to revive U.S. solar manufacturing with a trade case that's headed for the president's desk. The simmering dispute from Suniva stands a good chance of leading to import tariffs, but don't expect that to bring the jobs back.

While at least six Asian solar companies say the prospect of trade barriers has them weighing the idea of opening factories in the United States, they're likely considering highly automated facilities that won't need armies of workers.

Advanced manufacturing techniques and surging production, especially in China, have dragged down prices for solar modules and helped spur a global boom in clean power. The same factors are now making it harder for U.S. companies such Suniva to compete, and have transformed the employment landscape. It's a pattern that's been seen before, in auto factories, steel mills, coal mines and other industries, as increasingly automated production systems increase output with fewer workers.

'Lower costs in China have destroyed U.S. solar-industry jobs - that's true,” Angelo Zino, a New York-based analyst at CFRA, said in an interview. 'But while tariffs might compel Chinese manufacturers to open plants here, does that create an enormous amount of domestic jobs? Probably not.”

Factories aren't where most U.S. solar jobs are being created. The industry employed about 260,000 people last year, including about 38,000 manufacturing positions, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association.

Only 2,000 people were making solar cells and modules at the start of 2017, and that's now slipped to less than 1,000 after layoffs at Suniva and its co-plaintiff in the trade suit, the U.S. unit of bankrupt German panel maker SolarWorld. Most jobs are in construction - developing and installing solar panels - and other downstream tasks, including finance.

Imposing tariffs on solar components will boost U.S. manufacturing, according to Suniva and SolarWorld. Their suit asserts that cheap imported panels and cells have harmed the U.S. industry, and trade barriers are needed to help restore it. Suniva brought the suit 'to re-open and re-hire its workers, and to grow a U.S. manufacturing base,” Mark Paustenbach, a spokesman for the manufacturer, said by email.