Or are they just being lazy and not responding to market conditions of supply?
The U.S. Solar Industry Needs Government Support to Compete With Cheap Imports
Seems to me that the US solar industry just isn’t ramping up to be able to produce the items needed for solar cells….Silicon ingots and wafers, Fabs to make ’em into cells, etc.
Hiding behind tariffs and import restrictions is all well and good, but it also becomes a crutch and an excuse for not becoming competitive. which is what we have here now.
It’s the same thing that led to our Steel industry becoming more or less obsolete. Failing to upgrade and invest in their industry led to them becoming ever more unable to compete with newer, better mills.
Government protectionism is a short term panacea.
When Trump instituted the 25% tariff on products coming from China to help US manufacturing, the net result was an increase in prices, not a boom in domestic factory building. First, because building a factory is expensive and skilled workers don’t just appear from nowhere — tool and die makers, operators, etc.
The second, and more important reason, is with the increase in cost for Chinese imports, the domestic suppliers simply raised their prices.