Law360 Quotes Morten Lund on Effects of a Tariff on U.S. Solar Industry

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"The more direct impact is a lack of confidence in the U.S. solar market for what else might come up. The short-term impacts will be more dramatic. The greater, lasting impact of the tariffs is reputational, and confidence in U.S. solar markets and solar policies."

—Morten Lund on possible fallout of imposition of tariff.
Attorney Morten Lund was quoted by Law360 in an article titled “4 Things To Know About Suniva's Solar Cell Tariff Bid.” The article discusses possible repercussions of a recent request by Suniva Inc., a bankrupt U.S. solar panel maker, that President Donald Trump impose tariffs on all foreign-made solar cells.

The author points out that Suniva may have made its request because the president vowed to boost domestic manufacturing through tariffs, renegotiated trade deals and other measures, though he will have to weigh the benefits of tariffs on the manufacturing segment of the solar industry against the impacts to the rest—with the latter outweighing the manufacturing portion in terms of jobs created to date.

The solar industry has seen more than half of the currently operating utility-scale solar power come online in the last two years and the number of smaller projects such as rooftop solar installations increase by 35 percent just in 2016. But tariffs, if enacted, could prove a brake on that growth by negating the reduction in costs of solar equipment that has made the installations increasingly economical.

"That puts us back to 2013 pricing levels; essentially, it undoes years of progress," Lund said.

Read “4 Things To Know About Suniva's Solar Cell Tariff Bid,” published May 17, 2017. (Subscription required.) 

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