OPINION:
“How Trump can take a hammer to Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act” (web, Dec. 3) by Bret Manley, who is affiliated with the recently formed Energy Fair Trade Coalition, makes many dubious claims. I want to focus on three.
First, taxpayers do not subsidize First Solar under the Inflation Reduction Act. While we benefit from tax credits, we must manufacture and sell a product at a profit to receive these credits.
Mr. Manley does not inform your readers that First Solar will have invested over $7.5 billion in upgrading and expanding its manufacturing capacity between 2016 and 2026, establishing the largest manufacturing and photovoltaic solar research and development footprint in the Western Hemisphere and creating the only viable alternative to the crystalline silicon solar supply chains that China dominates.
It is also worth noting that an economic impact study conducted by the University of Louisiana at Lafayette found that First Solar will support an estimated 30,060 direct, indirect and induced jobs by 2026, representing a total labor income of $2.78 billion per year.
Secondly, far from Mr. Manley’s false claim, First Solar’s uniquely American thin film technology is safe, proven by over 50 gigawatts of modules deployed worldwide over the past quarter century, and it represents the future of solar technology. Once again, it is the only viable alternative to the China-dominated crystalline silicon solar supply chains.
Finally, First Solar has the most extensive domestic supply chain in the solar industry, which spans the country. We use 100% U.S.-made glass and steel.
Mr. Manley has a history of targeting the two largest American solar manufacturers, yet he is strangely silent about the Chinese solar companies, many of which have direct ties to the Chinese Communist Party. The only real boondoggle is something that Mr. Manley avoids mentioning: These Chinese solar manufacturers are in line to hoover up billions in U.S. taxpayer dollars while creating minimal value in the United States.
That First Solar has vocally advocated stringent guardrails to prevent the abuse of U.S. taxpayer money may explain why it is being targeted by a dark money group with a strategy straight out of China’s disinformation playbook.
One can only speculate about whom Mr. Manley really serves.
SAMANTHA SLOAN
Vice president, global policy
First Solar Inc.
Cary, North Carolina
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