The Biden administration has pushed for renewable energy to be made in America as a way to deal with climate change while creating American jobs.
But when it comes to solar power, the plan could make emissions cuts much more expensive.
So suggests a landmark study in Nature that concludes it may be “difficult or impossible” for the US to meet Paris climate targets if it tries to break away from Chinese-made solar power supplies in favor of US manufacturers.
While the analysis does not focus on President Joe Biden specifically, it highlights a debate over whether policies aimed at increasing domestic production could dampen the effectiveness of climate change legislation. It also comes as questions emerge about the US strategy over alleged human rights abuses in the Chinese region of Xinjiang, a global manufacturing hub for the solar industry.
According to the study, if three major countries – the US, China and Germany – introduce “strict nationalistic” policies on solar energy, it could cause the average cost of a panel to be 20 to 25 percent higher by 2030 than it would otherwise be. else.
“What this study tells us is that if we are serious about fighting climate change, policymakers need to implement policies that promote cooperation across global value chains in scaling up low-carbon energy technologies,” said John Helveston, lead author of the report. paper and an assistant professor of engineering management and systems engineering at George Washington University, in a statement. The analysis is the first to quantify the cost savings of a globalized value chain for the solar industry, the researchers said.
About 78 percent of the world’s solar panels and cells were produced in China in 2021, according to European researchers. For some precursor components, China’s share of the global market climbs even higher, into the 90th percentile.
This has largely resulted from the “free flow” of Western resources into China, such as start-up funding, collaborations with Chinese researchers and innovative lab-scale technologies, the study said.
Federal officials are currently weighing new tariffs on Chinese solar imports, a strategy they have used periodically over the past decade to boost domestic production. The naturalist team also explored ideas that have only emerged under Biden, such as the use of the Defense Production Act to guarantee contracts for domestically produced solar equipment. In addition, the paper assessed the effect of policies such as restrictions on cross-national research and development, as well as barriers to cross-border investment.
If the U.S. and other countries were to adopt such policies, they could lead to slower “learning processes,” referring to how the solar industry learns from experience to sell electricity more cheaply while using better technologies, according to the authors.
“The world needs costs to continue to fall for these critical components, and placing restrictions on their use in the United States could jeopardize these cost reductions,” Helveston wrote in an email.
The findings are equally true for wind power, electric vehicles and other forms of low-carbon energy, the authors said. As policymakers plan ways to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, as required by the Paris Agreement, “they should recognize that these ambitions may be difficult or impossible to achieve without globalized low-carbon supply chains,” the study said.
However, some advocates of made-in-America solar policies were critical of the study’s methods.
Todd Tucker, director of industrial policy and trade at the Roosevelt Institute, a progressive think tank, said the analysis is flawed when it presents two types of markets — domestic and global — as polar opposites.
“They create a very stark contrast between two states in the world that just doesn’t reflect reality,” he said.
In doing so, the authors excluded “intermediate solutions” such as diversifying the world’s solar generation base while continuing to import from around the world, including from countries considered more friendly to the United States, Tucker added.
He cited estimates that suggest the Inflation Reduction Act will bring the U.S. about two-thirds of the way toward the Paris goals (Climatewire, Aug. 11). “This [study’s] argument would have been a little more compelling a few months ago” when the passage of key climate policy seemed dubious, Tucker said.
Energy Department officials also defended the idea of building up U.S. solar production.
Doing so “creates jobs and economic activity, while building technical expertise and capacity, simplifying shipping and logistics, and reducing supply chain uncertainty,” Becca Jones-Albertus, director of DOE’s Solar Energy Technologies Office, said in a statement.
Continuing to rely on solar imports, on the other hand, risks “exposing the nation to supply chain vulnerabilities while losing the opportunity to increase the number of good-paying jobs that come from the energy transition,” she added.
China looms large
China’s dominance as a solar cell producer has already affected the price of panels in the US and other countries. On the same subject : What solar energy rebates and incentives are available ?.
The Nature study authors concluded that US solar developers were able to save $36 billion from 2008 to 2020 as a result. Solar modules would have been more than twice as expensive for US companies if the US, China and Germany had all tried to protect local manufacturers, the study found.
But the solar industry’s tight ties to China may be on the verge of loosening: The Biden administration and both parties in Congress have treated China’s manufacturing muscle as something to be countered.
For Republicans, the industry’s links to China — particularly to forced labor programs that push Uyghur detainees into jobs at solar equipment factories — have served as a line of attack on the administration’s clean energy ambitions (Energywire, Oct. 5) .
The Biden administration has stepped up customs enforcement since the summer of 2021, blacklisting one Chinese solar manufacturer and confiscating shipments of panels suspected of links to forced labor schemes.
But it has also repeatedly described U.S. solar power generation as a source of green jobs for U.S. residents and a means of protecting the nation’s energy security from geopolitical disruptions. The administration has either supported or is considering a much broader range of made-in-America policies that were criticized by the study’s authors.
For example, an executive order by Biden on September 15 directed a special committee of trade officials to consider whether a foreign firm’s investments in US-based clean energy would be harmful to national security. It’s an example of something that “would create barriers to cross-border investment” needed to scale up solar energy, said Gang He, a study co-author and assistant professor in the Department of Technology and Society at Stony Brook University.
New tariffs on solar imports could also have negative effects on prices, said Michael Davidson, co-author and assistant professor at the School of Global Policy and Strategy at the University of California, San Diego. The Commerce Ministry is considering new duties on solar panels and cells coming from four Southeast Asian countries, with a first decision due at the end of November. The Treasury and Commerce departments did not comment on the record for this story.
Tucker of the Roosevelt Institute said previous rounds of solar tariffs had come with flexibility for developers via carve-outs and loopholes.
“I’m not too worried about the solar installation industry not having the imports it needs to meet its goals,” he said. “Police officers know they have to walk and chew gum at the same time.”
Will the climate law work?
The Solar Energy Industries Association, an industry group dominated by developers, has fought bitterly against new import tariffs, arguing they would hurt installation growth. To see also : How has solar energy changed the world ?.
But the group has praised new incentives for U.S. solar manufacturers in the Inflation Reduction Act, including the first manufacturing tax credits for U.S. manufacturers of panels, cells and a long list of panel components. The credits could jump-start as much as 50 gigawatts of new manufacturing capacity for made-in-America solar products, according to SEIA. This amount would multiply current production levels several times over (Energywire, August 19).
John Smirnow, vice president of market strategy and general counsel at SEIA, responded to the Nature study by saying it was “entirely possible” to create “balanced solar energy supply chains … without the kind of cost increases that would jeopardize the world’s climate ambitions.”
“There is no doubt that a stronger U.S. solar supply chain will offer our country a measure of energy and economic security, but there will always be a place for an ethical globalized low-carbon solar supply chain,” he said in a statement.
The Nature Study Team generally supported the Climate Act’s guidelines for tax credits for solar energy, including for production. UC San Diego’s Davidson said the incentives mirror “some of the pillars of China’s success in the solar industry.”
Still, he and his co-authors took a less favorable view of policies that make tax credits available to solar cell developers and electric vehicle manufacturers that use a certain percentage of American-made products. Davidson called those EV requirements “problematic” in an email to E&E News.
Jones-Albertus of the Energy Department said the climate change law has led to billions in new U.S. solar factory investment, “showing the growing enthusiasm” for domestic manufacturing.
The law’s tax credits would allow U.S. manufacturers to sell modules and components at prices low enough to compete with imports, she argued.
As a result, “solar supply chains will be diversified without costing consumers more to buy US-made solar modules,” Jones-Albertus said.
What are the 3 main types of environmental issues?
The list of problems surrounding our environment goes on, but there are three big ones that affect most of them overall: global warming and climate change; water pollution and ocean acidification; and loss of biodiversity.
What are 3 popular environmental issues going on today? Overpopulation is also one of the decisive environmental problems today.
- Depletion of natural resources. Another important current environmental problem is the depletion of natural resources. …
- Generation of unsustainable waste. …
- Deforestation. …
- Polar ice caps. …
- Loss of biodiversity. …
- Climate changes. …
- Ocean acidification. …
- Overfishing.
What are 4 environmental issues?
Types. Major current environmental issues can include climate change, pollution, environmental degradation and resource depletion. The conservation movement lobbies for the protection of endangered species and the protection of all ecologically valuable natural areas, genetically modified food and global warming.
What are the 3 major environmental problems and how can we solve them?
Environmental problems such as oil spills, deforestation and poverty must be solved in themselves. But solving these problems indirectly helps to solve the problem of climate change.
What are the 5 major environmental problems explain?
Ozone depletion, greenhouse effect and global warming 2. Desertification 3. Deforestation 4. Loss of biological diversity 5.
What is the biggest environmental issue today?
Air pollution One of the biggest environmental problems today is outdoor air pollution. Research by the World Health Organization (WHO) shows that an estimated 4.2 to 7 million people die from air pollution worldwide each year, and that nine out of 10 people breathe air containing high levels of pollutants.
What is social issues and the environment?
Environmental change is also a matter of social justice. The consequences are usually worse for some groups than for others. People with less social, economic and political advantages are more likely to experience negative effects from pollution, resource scarcity, severe weather events and other environmental problems.
What are the social impacts on the environment? Social influences are influences on the livelihoods of people and the services the natural environment provides to people. Examples of social consequences include: Resettlement. Loss of property or land, including gardens.
What are the issues with the environment?
These include pollution, overpopulation, waste management, climate change, global warming, the greenhouse effect, etc.
What are 10 environmental issues?
Our Mother Earth is currently facing many environmental problems. The environmental problems such as global warming, acid rain, air pollution, urban sprawl, waste management, depletion of the ozone layer, water pollution, climate change and many more affect all people, animals and nations on this planet.
What is the social issues and environment?
Global environmental changes – such as pollution, climate change, biodiversity loss and freshwater depletion – affect people worldwide, with consequences that are not only physical, but also social and economic.
What is the difference between social and environmental issues?
Environmental justice is primarily concerned with the positive as well as the negative effects that various environmental factors can have on society and individuals. Social justice aims to ensure fair treatment of individuals and groups.
What are 10 environmental issues?
Our Mother Earth is currently facing many environmental problems. The environmental problems such as global warming, acid rain, air pollution, urban sprawl, waste management, depletion of the ozone layer, water pollution, climate change and many more affect all people, animals and nations on this planet.
What environmental laws were passed in the 1970s?
The 1970s were a groundbreaking decade for environmental protection. The first year saw three major accomplishments: the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Clean Air Act, and the creation of the EPA. NEPA alone was groundbreaking.
How did laws passed in the 1970s protect the environment? On January 1, 1970, President Richard Nixon signed the National Environmental Policy Act (or NEPA), which began the 1970s as the Decade of the Environment. Later that year, President Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which consolidated environmental programs from other agencies into a single entity.
What are the three most known environmental laws from the 1970s?
In the 1970s, the United States government passed three major environmental laws: the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Toxic Substances Control Act. The elected representatives passed this environmental legislation to increase regulations regarding air, water and toxic substances.
What was happening with the environment during the 1970’s?
Silent Spring. Environmental protection became one of the most dominant social concerns of the 1970s, with serious debate about how best to control pollution and the effect that pollution had on the environment as a whole, whether it was nuclear, chemical or something else entirely.
What was established in the 1970’s to help the environment?
Five months earlier, in July 1970, President Nixon had signed Reorganization Plan No. 3 which called for the creation of the EPA in July 1970.
What were the two main environmental acts of the 1970s?
Richard Nixon’s first official act in the 1970s was to sign that bill into law. Nixon actually signed all the most important environmental laws of that decade: The clean air act, 1970. The clean water act, 1972.
What were the two main environmental acts of the 1970s?
Richard Nixon’s first official act in the 1970s was to sign that bill into law. Nixon actually signed all the most important environmental laws of that decade: The clean air act, 1970. The clean water act, 1972.
What 2 Significant events relating to the environment occurred in 1970?
1970 â Lake Michigan Federation founded. December 31 â The Clean Air Act was signed into law.
What was established in the 1970’s to help the environment?
Five months earlier, in July 1970, President Nixon had signed Reorganization Plan No. 3 which called for the creation of the EPA in July 1970.
What happened in 1970 for the environment?
The first Earth Day, held on April 22, 1970, marked a turning point for American environmentalism, capturing the growing activism of the 1960s and setting the country on the path to creating the Environmental Protection Agency and many important laws in the 1970s.
What was happening with the environment during the 1970’s?
Silent Spring. Environmental protection became one of the most dominant social concerns of the 1970s, with serious debate about how best to control pollution and the effect that pollution had on the environment as a whole, whether it was nuclear, chemical or something else entirely.
What led to the environmental movement in the 1970s?
Industrial Dumping Characterized the United States The grassroots environmental mobilization that led to the first Earth Day in 1970 built on nearly a century of efforts to address the pollution of water, air, and land caused by industrialization and urbanization.
What was environmentalism in the 1970s?
By the late 1970s, the United States had an Environmental Protection Agency and a Clean Air Act. The next few years brought landmark legislation to clean up rivers and lakes, regulate waste disposal and protect drinking water. In the early 1970s, a permanent eco-infrastructure was also created outside the government.