Chinese firms are selling off their stake in U.S. solar power production, according to new economic reports.
Solar panels for NASA at a clean-room in Titusville, Florida, just down the coast from where Chinese solar giant JinkoSolar sold control of its U.S. facility this May.all the crumbling hardware undergirding the U.S. economy, making it safer, fortified against extreme weather, and less of a contributor of greenhouse gases?
Well, sorry to say, the party’s over. In a sign of just how hostile the Trump administration has been toward its predecessor’s investment in a more sustainable and green economy, Chinese firms have scuttled an estimated $2.8 billion in planned U.S. energy projects over the past year. According to newby analysts with the Rhodium Group, more than half of China’s proposed plans for clean-energy tech projects across the United States since 2022 have been either paused, delayed, or outright abandoned.
“The policy environment is getting more restrictive,” as one former senior counselor to the Biden era’s Department of Commerce, Margaret Jackson, Jackson, now a senior associate at the nonprofit Center for Strategic and International Studies, suspects that this inhospitable climate for green tech investing is unlikely to change even in the “I’m not sure that below him there’s a lot of appetite to create space for more Chinese investment,” Jackson said. Rhodium’s analysts reported that all three of the world’s leading regions for clean tech manufacturing, China, the U.S., and Europe, have pulled back on their commitments over the course of Trump’s first year back in office—but China’s behavior was unique.
State intervention had once catapulted China’s domestic clean energy, battery, and electric vehicle manufacturing sectors five-fold from $37 billion in 2018 to a very sizable $189 billion in 2023, creating major market dominance in some areas but also an overcapacity problem. Nevertheless, even with a lower investment total and a flight from U.S. soil, China’s future plans for solar manufacturing infrastructure remain impressively monumental.
Rhodium estimates that the nation has about 485 gigawatts of solar cell production capacity currently under construction domestically—or enough to power about 425 million additional Chinese homes a year—plus another 1.3 terawatts of solar capacity announced but not yet put in motion. If all goes as planned, China will literally still be doubling its solar power output, according to Rhodium.
“The new policy focus on solar manufacturing and the EV supply chain is likely to emphasize maintaining China’s leading position and closing remaining technological gaps and overseas dependencies,” as the group’s report,The economic data reflects some more stark anecdotal news documenting how China-based firms have pulled up their solar stakes in communities across America.
This month, for example, Chinese solar manufacturing giant JinkoSolar sold off 75.1% of its ownership stake in its U.S. subsidiary to a private equity firm, which will nowChina’s Trina Solar similarly pawned off a majority stake in its solar manufacturing facility to an American firm, T1 Energy, shortlyMuch of this skittishness ties directly to legal headaches from the Trump administration’s new Foreign Entity of Concern , introduced last year in that “Big, Beautiful Bill,” which places limits on the amount of Chinese ownership permitted for U.S. energy projects.that most Chinese manufacturers are clearly keeping low-level financial toeholds in their U.S. factories, the clear consequence is more price hikes and less clean energy across America for the foreseeable future as FEOC restrictions slow plans down.
As Aaron Halimi, CEO of the San Francisco-based utility developer Renewable Properties, explained it to Reuters, “This is undoubtedly going to continue to increase the cost of power in the United States. ”Gas-Powered Car Sales in China Have Collapsed Amid Rising Fuel Costs
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Law firms urge appeals court to keep blocking Trump's sanctions against themAn appeals court has heard arguments in a case challenging President Donald Trump's ability to sanction some of the nation’s most prestigious law firms over their ties to clients and representatives whom he dislikes.
Read more »
Law firms urge appeals court to keep blocking Trump’s sanctions against themAttorney argues Trump’s sanctions violate the First Amendment and the rule of law.
Read more »
Appeals court weighs Trump crackdown on law firms and security clearance revocationsAn appeals court weighed Trump’s law firm crackdown and security clearance revocations tied to political retaliation claims.
Read more »
What had Chinese media buzzing during Trump’s visit?As President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping held high-stakes talks in Beijing, millions of Chinese online were drawn to the summit not because of diplomacy — but the visual details that spoke to their national pride. CNN’s Steven Jiang explains.
Read more »