China’s solar restrictions, if they are implemented, won’t be as damaging as the U.S. chip controls, analysts said, because solar manufacturing doesn’t require the same level of precision, and the U.S. has the know-how to eventually build the machines China is proposing to control.
Still, the move would cause pain in the U.S., according to Ilaria Mazzocco, senior fellow at the Washington-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Because solar is a broadly commoditized technology, cost competitiveness is one of the key advantages of China’s solar sector, said Dan Wang, analyst at the consulting firm Gavekal Dragonomics. Inability to access manufacturing technology for these large-size modules would likely further drive up production costs in the U.S., he said.