Trump’s solar decision hurts disadvantaged communities

Last week, the Trump administration did what America’s renewable energy businesses had been fearing for months when he put harmful tariffs and quotas on imported solar.

The solar tariffs will apply to imported solar cells for the next four years, starting at 30 percent and dropping slightly each year to 15 percent.

The decision has been decried by vast segments of industry and government, including solar providers and utilities to state, local and military leaders.

{mosads}It will harm workers and make an increasingly important technology more expensive, yet is unlikely to significantly increase domestic manufacturing. The Solar Energy Industry Association (SEIA) estimates that the tariffs will cost as many as 23,000 jobs across the country.

In advance of the decision, there were some fears of much higher tariffs — SEIA warned that the worst-case scenario would mean the loss of 88,000 jobs.  

If you’re looking at the industry as a whole, 30 percent hurts, but will not totally derail it. The solar industry has grown to be a major economic force employing more than 260,000 workers directly across the country. Costs have fallen more than 70 percent in the last 10-years and are expected to continue to fall. The industry will survive, and over time, the impact of the tariffs will be gradually muted. 

But for lower-income communities that are most sensitive to economic shifts and most impacted by climate change, this decision is a serious setback.

The decline in residential solar prices over the last ten years had just begun to open solar access to millions of lower-income Americans. Access to solar is important because it provides families and communities the opportunity to take ownership of their energy, stabilize and reduce housing costs and replace polluting energy sources. As we saw in Florida during the recent hurricane, solar can also provide back-up power in emergencies when paired with batteries.

The economics of solar matter the most for cash-strapped families, community facilities and affordable housing owners. The estimated result of the tariffs will be an average 10 cent per watt increase in year one prices for modules, increasing the average price of small home system by $300-500, and an average multifamily one by $5,000-$10,000. 

Price is also a major factor for utilities, municipalities and state governments. Over the last decade, as prices have dropped, more and more governments and energy providers have invested in solar facilities and programs, opening renewable energy access to and lowering energy costs for hundreds of thousands of low-income families. Examples include Illinois, which is in the process of building out its new Solar for All program; Washington, D.C., whose program of the same name aims to reduce energy bills by 50 percent for 100,000 low-income residents; and Rural Electric Cooperatives in Colorado that are providing discounted power to energy-burdened families through community solar arrays.

The benefits of these investments go beyond the energy savings of solar to the healthier air and water that clean energy can bring. Communities of color and low-income communities have faced the worst of the impacts of polluting power plants, giving them the highest claim on clean energy access. 

Finally, the impact on jobs will likely hit lower-paid workers hardest, because that’s what always happens. Solar installation work has been the fastest growing segment of the solar jobs boom and the most accessible to people without a college degree. Those installation jobs are likely to take a major hit — putting people out of work at a time when well-paid entry-level jobs are hard to come by. The solar job market had already slowed in 2017 under the cloud of this decision, and the worst is yet to come.

Solar has been in many ways an American success story, and now is not the time to pull back.  In the months ahead, states and cities will need to step-up to the challenge created by the Trump administration’s short-sighted move. It is now more important than ever that state and local governments ramp up their solar investments — particularly in disadvantaged communities, lower regulatory barriers, and lead on renewable energy policies such as Renewable Portfolio Standards.

Solar can be a tool for American energy independence. It’s a jobs engine, a way to clean up the air in our most impacted communities, and a way to lower bills for struggling families. With the Trump administration on the wrong side of the issue, it’s up to the rest of us to take the lead.

Erica Mackie is CEO and co-founder of GRID Alternatives, making solar power and solar jobs accessible to low-income communities.