Solar industry grapples with Chinese imports.

• Author: Best, Allen
• Position: ENERGY - Industry overview

AFTER DROPPING 70 PERCENT IN THE last three years, prices of solar panels were expected to drop another It) percent this year. But that was before the U.S. Commerce Department in May slapped still tariffs of between 31 percent and 250 percent on solar panels made in China.

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Anxious solar installers in Colorado had Item awaiting the ruling, worried that the industry's momentum Might Stall. Overall 50 percent or solar panels installed in the Untied States come From China.

"We are worried that we might see price increases, but we haven't seen them yet," said Don Parker, owner of Golden Solar. in a May interview.

The solar industry is becoming stature and increasingly competitive, and this dispute reflects that maturation. But analysts warn that the dispute with Chinese Over solar goods anti a parallel disagreement about wind towers are harbingers for a trade war that will stunt the growth 01 renewable energy.

"We need to think strategically as a country how we want to approach renewable energy going forward in a way that is going to avoid an international trade war," says Joanna Lewis, an assistant professor for' science, technology and international affairs at the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. She spoke in a session at the World Renewable Energy Forum held in Denver during May. "If we take it on a case-by-case basis and continue to place duties on imports of renewable energy goods From China and other countries, we are going to have to worry about retaliation."

Neal Lurie, executive director of the Colorado Solar Energy Industries Association, says solar has achieved parity with electricity produced by Fossil fuels in some places--including, at times, in Colorado.

"Companies like Wal-Mart aren't going to solar because they're looking at things purely for environmental reasons," Lurie said. "They're doing so to gain competitive advantage, and they see solar as an important part of that."

The United States has been a net exporter to China of items used to create solar panels. That changed in 2011. Prices plummeted as Chinese manufacturers geared up production, and demand from European countries slackened. Solyndra was the most famous casualty of the increased competition, but three American solar companies that together represented one-sixth of American manufacturing capacity in the PV panel sector went bankrupt last year.

Colorado has 6,000 employees involved in the manufacture, installation...