The US solar industry has been booming, employing far more people than coal and helping cut American emissions. But President Trump’s administration could end up slapping tariffs on imported solar cells and panels. Llewelyn Hughes describes how this will affect the industry. Tumbling prices for solar energy have helped stoke demand among U.S. homeowners, businesses and utilities for electricity powered by the sun. But that could soon change. President Donald Trump – whose proposed 2018 budget would slash support for alternative energy – will soon get a new opportunity to undermine the solar power market by imposing duties that could increase the cost of solar power high enough to choke off the industry’s growth. As scholars of how public policies affect, and are affected by, energy, we have been studying how the solar industry is increasingly global. We also research what this means for who wins and loses from the renewable energy revolution in the U.S. and Europe. We believe that imposing steep new duties on imported solar equipment would hurt the overall U.S. solar industry. … Continue reading How Trump could undermine the US solar boom