Solar panels not as green as you think as battle looms on 'massive' panel tariffs

Solar panels aren't as environmentally friendly as you may think.

The bulk of solar panels are imported into the U.S., making them cheaper but not necessarily green.

"Solar panels in China are made using Chinese electricity, which is associated with high emissions of CO2," Robbie Andrew, a senior researcher at the Center for International Climate Research in Oslo, Norway, told FOX Business.

In August, the American Solar Manufacturers Against Chinese Circumvention asked the Commerce Department to investigate "Unfairly traded" imports from Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam of solar cells and modules that are "Unlawfully circumventing antidumping and countervailing duties on China."

VANUATU TO PUSH INTERNATIONAL COURT TO CLIMATE CHANGE OPINION. Imports from Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand account for 80% of all panel imports into the U.S., according to the Solar Energy Industries Association, as reported by Reuters.

"We are writing to emphasize the immediate and serious threat posed to the U.S. solar industry from the anonymous circumvention petitions recently filed against solar cell and panel imports from Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam," the SEIA said in a September letter to U.S. Commerce Department Secretary Gina Raimondo.

"The massive duties called for in these petitions, ranging from 50% to as high as 250%, are already having an adverse impact on the U.S. solar industry and, if implemented, would devastate the industry and each of our individual companies," the letter said.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/solar-panels-green-tariff-battle