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The US solar industry is in an uproar over a group of petitions before the Department of Commerce, which seek to impose heavy new tariffs on imported solar panels and solar cells. The writers of the petitions have chosen to remain anonymous and now the guessing game is on. So, who is behind those solar tariff petitions?

What’s The Big Deal About Solar Panel Tariffs?

If you’re new to the topic of solar panel tariffs, all you need to know is one thing: the number of actual soup-to-nuts solar manufacturers in the US is vanishingly small. Almost all of the domestic manufacturing in the US is done with imported panels and cells, among other parts. That means tariffs can make or break key players and put a damper on the entire domestic industry.

It’s not quite that simple, because other elements can come into play. The Trump administration put a crimp in the industry when it imposed new solar tariffs in January 2018, but technology improvements, new solar financing instruments, and the use of solar panels not covered by the tariffs helped keep the industry up and running.

Supply chain security is another complicating factor. As with the Obama administration, the Biden administration is trying to ramp up domestic supplies of key parts and materials. That’s going to take time. As things stand now, the US is going to have to continue relying on imports to accelerate solar installation in accord with the President’s ambitious climate action plan.

So, Who’s Really Behind The New Solar Panel Tariffs?

Into this picture steps a group of anonymous companies petitioning the Department of Commerce to impose new tariffs of 50% to 250% on imports of crystalline silicon photovoltaic panels and cells from Malaysia, Vietnam, and Thailand, according to an angry letter fired off by the Solar Industries Association of America earlier this week. The letter was signed by 190 or so US solar stakeholders.

In the letter, SEIA demanded to know who was behind the petitions. If you know how to look up petitions at the Department of Commerce, have at it. We searched under “crystalline silicon photovoltaic” and came up with four recent and not-so-anonymous requests for relief.

The first occurred in 2017 during the Trump administration and was filed on behalf of Suniva. The next one popped up in 2019, on behalf of “United States Trade Representative.”

Then it was radio silence until last month, when two petitions popped up. One was filed on behalf of Suniva and Auxin Solar, and the other was filed on behalf of Hanwha Q Cells USA, LG Electronics USA, and Mission Solar Energy.

If you’re having an a-ha moment, you might have to guess again. Auxin, Suniva, Hanwha, and LG were not among the 190 solar companies that signed on to the SEIA letter, but Mission Solar does appear on the list.

So, either Mission is playing both sides against the middle, or it has one hand that doesn’t know what the other is doing, or there are two different companies called Mission Solar. Or something else is going on.

Either way, neither of the August petitions are the ones upon which SEIA is aiming its wrath. According to news reports last month, several petitions were that were filed in August have yet to be published by the Commerce Department.

Who Really Supports Solar Panel Tariffs?

One might look for a hint among the solar companies that publicly supported the Trump administration on solar panel tariffs. One was Suniva, which later filed for bankruptcy. In 2019 our friends over at Quartz reported that Suniva later-later successfully reorganized through the New York firm Lion Point Capital.

Quartz also noted that the German company SolarWorld Industries’ wholly owned subsidiary SolarWorld Americas supported the Trump tariffs before it, too, filed for bankruptcy. Its assets were purchased by SunPower in 2018.

SolarWorld Americas did surface again in 2020, when the D.C. law firm Wiley represented it in a tariff case against the Chinese company Sunpreme in California (more on that in a sec).

What Is The American Solar Manufacturers Against Chinese Circumvention?

As for the identities of the anonymous petitions, the answer still lies somewhere deep within the halls of Wiley, which is also representing those filers. In a press release dated August 16, Wiley cites the organization American Solar Manufacturers Against Chinese Circumvention as the entity behind the anonymous petitions.

By circumvention, they allege that Chinese companies have off-shored much of their solar business to Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, while continuing to hold a firm grip on subsidized manufacturing and R&D at home. The Wiley press release names many names including affiliates of Jinko Solar in Malaysia, Canadian Solar Manufacturing in Thailand, and Trina Solar in Vietnam.

Wiley’s August press release was widely reported, but nobody seems to have found a website or any other background information about an organization named the American Solar Manufacturers Against Chinese Circumvention, other than there are reportedly several solar companies in the group.

That thing about anonymity brings up another case of interest involving Wiley and privacy. Last March, the firm issued a press release that describes two amicus briefs it filed in support of organizations challenging a California law that requires all charities operating within the state to disclose their major donors to the California Attorney General.

One was filed in support of the Thomas More Law Center and the Americans for Prosperity Foundation. The other was filed jointly with the American Legislative Exchange Council.

If ALEC rings a bell, it should. Among other issues, the organization has been linked to obstruction on climate action, leading climate activists and other stakeholders to try and shed light on its donors.

Wily’s amicus brief with ALEC goes beyond First Amendment issues to describe why anonymity is so important to charitable organizations like ALEC.

“…ALEC’s brief highlights an organized campaign to defame, harass, and boycott ALEC members as well as members of other organizations over several decades using compulsory disclosure as a tool,” Wiley explains in its press release.

“The brief details how public officials allied with private activists tried to obtain rosters of ALEC’s ‘members and private contributors’ for the purpose of using that information ‘to ruin ALEC and eliminate its ideas from the public square,’” Wiley adds.

Do tell! Let’s go back to those anonymous circumvention petitions that Wiley filed in August. PV Magazine’s reporting included an interview with Wiley partner Timothy Brightbill, who explained the reasoning behind the anonymity:

“[Brightbill] declined to name members of the antidumping organization, saying that ‘Given the Chinese control of the entire solar supply chain, retaliation is likely if their identities are revealed.’ In such situations, the companies who make up the coalition ‘are allowed under U.S. law to remain confidential,’ he said.”

That seems to settle that. Wiley and Brightbill also represented SolarWorld Americas in that 2020 legal action, so it seems that anonymity cuts a fine cloth in matters such as these.

The Commerce Department has until September 30 to answer the anonymous petitions, so stay tuned for more on that.

Follow me on Twitter @TinaMCasey.

Photo: Solar panels via US Department of Energy.

 

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Oil giant Saudi Aramco posts 15% drop in third-quarter profit but maintains dividend

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Oil giant Saudi Aramco posts 15% drop in third-quarter profit but maintains dividend

Saudi Aramco’s Ras Tanura oil refinery and oil terminal

Ahmed Jadallah | Reuters

Saudi state oil giant Aramco reported a 15.4% drop in net profit in the third-quarter on the back of “lower crude oil prices and weakening refining margins,” but maintained a 31.05 billion dividend.

The company reported net income of $27.56 billion in the July-September period, topping a company-provided estimate of $26.9 billion. The print is also a 5% drop from the previous quarter, which came in at $29.1 billion, as lower global oil prices, weaker demand and prolonged OPEC+ production cuts led by Saudi Arabia continue to impact crude prices.

The average selling price of oil for the second quarter of 2024 stood at $85 per barrel, but dropped to $78.7 per barrel during the third quarter, according to Saudi-based bank Al Rajhi capital, as non-OPEC supply volumes grew.

The oil firm said its year-on-year decline was partly offset by a “reduction in selling, administrative and general expenses primarily driven by a gain from derivative instruments, and a decrease in production royalties largely reflecting lower crude oil prices and a lower average effective royalty rate compared to the same quarter last year.”

Aramco’s dividend includes a base payout of $20.3 billion and an atypical performance-linked one of $10.8 billion. The Saudi government and the kingdom’s sovereign wealth vehicle, the Public Investment Fund, are the main beneficiaries of the dividend, holding stakes of roughly 81.5% and 16% in the company.

The remaining shareholding trades freely on Saudi Arabia’s Tadāwul stock exchange, with the company having finalized its second public share offering back in June.

Aramco’s earnings before Interest and Taxes (EBIT) came in at $51.45 billion in the third quarter, down 17% year-on-year. Aramco’s capital expenditure guidance was brought up 20% to $13.23 billion.

The company was trading at 27.45 riyals following the announcement, down 0.18% on the previous day.

The earnings align with a broader trend across oil majors, whose third-quarter profits have also suffered from declines in crude prices and refining margins. Aramco said it achieved average realized crude price of $79.3 per barrel in the third quarter, compared with $89.3 per barrel in the same period of last year.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest crude exporter who produces roughly 9 million barrels per day of crude at present, serves as the de facto leader of the OPEC+ oil producers’ alliance, a subset of whom agreed over the weekend to delay a planned December output hike by one month.

OPEC chief says delayed December output hike is 'nothing unusual'

“Aramco delivered robust net income and generated strong free cash flow during the third quarter, despite a lower oil price environment,” CEO Amin Nasser said in a statement. “We also progressed our upstream developments, strengthened our downstream value chain, and advanced our new energies program as we continue to invest through cycles.”

The revenues will be a boon to the Saudi economy, which is currently undergoing a diversification process under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s legacy Vision 2030 scheme spanning a slew of high-cost infrastructure “gigaprojects.”

Earlier this year, Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Finance cut the kingdom’s growth forecast to 0.8% in 2024, in a steep decline from a previous projection of 4.4%, and raised the outlook for the national budgetary shortfall to roughly 2.9% of GDP, from a prior indication of 1.9%.

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Cybertruck backlog runs out, Model S gets stuck, GM hits a sales milestone

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Cybertruck backlog runs out, Model S gets stuck, GM hits a sales milestone

On today’s episode of Quick Charge, Tesla’s Cybertruck is now available in Canada – and, like in the US, there’s no waiting! Plus, we’ve got an “actually” smart summon Tesla that’s actually stuck, GM reaches a sales milestone, and we get a brand-new title sponsor!

Today’s episode is the first with our new title sponsor, BLUETTI – a leading provider of portable power stations, solar generators, and energy storage systems.

Prefer listening to your podcasts? Audio-only versions of Quick Charge are now available on Apple PodcastsSpotifyTuneIn, and our RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

New episodes of Quick Charge are recorded, usually, Monday through Thursday (and sometimes Sunday). We’ll be posting bonusLucid proves than an EV company can keep its promises while Xiaomi teams up with Chevrolet and Honda to prove – at least conceptually – that records are made to be broken. audio content from time to time as well, so be sure to follow and subscribe so you don’t miss a minute of Electrek’s high-voltage daily news!

Got news? Let us know!
Drop us a line at tips@electrek.co. You can also rate us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or recommend us in Overcast to help more people discover the show!

Read more: Renewables now make up 30% of US utility-scale generating capacity

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This ‘supercharger on wheels’ brings fast charging to you [update]

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This 'supercharger on wheels' brings fast charging to you [update]

Mobile car care company Yoshi Mobility launched a DC fast charging EV mobile unit that it likens to “a supercharger on wheels.”

November 4, 2024 update: Yoshi Mobility will only be charging EVs on the side of the road now – it announced today that it’s selling its fleet fueling operation to EZFill Holdings (Nasdaq: EZFL).

It was originally founded as a direct-to-consumer, mobile fueling business in 2016, but now it’s going to focus on mobile EV charging, virtual vehicle inspections for partners like Uber and Turo, and onsite preventative maintenance.

Bryan Frist, Yoshi Mobility’s CEO & cofounder, said, “By spinning off our fuel business and focusing all of our energy on solving hair-on-fire problems that fleet owners face, we are meeting the changing needs of enterprise customers while making the future of transportation safer, cleaner, and more sustainable.”


May 22, 2024: Yoshi Mobility saw that its existing customers needed mobile EV charging in places where infrastructure has yet to be installed, so the Nashville-based company decided to bring the mountain to Moses.

“We recognized a demand among our customers for convenient daily charging, reliable private charging networks, and proper charging infrastructure to support their fleet vehicles as they transition to electric,” said Dan Hunter, Yoshi Mobility’s chief EV officer and cofounder.

The company says its 240 kW mobile DC fast charger, which can turn “any EV” into a mobile charging unit, is the first fully electric mobile charger available. It can provide multiple charges in a single trip but doesn’t detail how they charge the DC fast charger or who manufactured it. (I asked for more details, and they replied that they won’t disclose client names or the manufacturer of its DC fast charger yet.)

Yoshi is launching its mobile charger on two GM BrightDrop Zevo 600s and will introduce additional vehicles throughout 2024. It aims for full commercialization by Q1 2025. (I wonder if the Zevo 600 ever charges itself? Yes, I asked that too.)

Yoshi Mobility says it’s already deployed its EV charging solutions to service “major OEMs, autonomous vehicle companies, and rideshare operators” across the US. Its initial customers are made up of large EV operators managing “hundreds” of light-duty vehicles requiring up to 1 megawatt of energy per day that don’t yet have grid-connected EV chargers. I’ve asked Yoshi for details of who it’s working with, and will update if they share that info.

The company says pricing is based on location and enterprise charging needs. Once under contract for service, the service will be deployed to US-based customers within 10 days.

To date, Yoshi Mobility has raised more than $60 million, with investments from GM Ventures, Bridgestone, ExxonMobil, and Y-Combinator in Silicon Valley.

Read more: Mercedes-Benz just opened more DC fast chargers at Buc-ee’s in Texas


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Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisers to help you every step of the way. Get started here. –ad*

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