Official statement from the International Trade Commission on the solar tariff petition

The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) has officially released its findings from today’s affirmative vote that foreign solar cell and panel imports have caused injury to U.S. manufacturing. Significant in the release is that Canadian, Australian, South American and Singaporean imports were found to not cause injury, while Mexican and Korean imports are included in the injury case.

The U.S. International Trade Commission today determined that increased imports of crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells (whether or not partially or fully assembled into other products) are being imported into the United States in such increased quantities as to be a substantial cause of serious injury to the domestic industry producing an article like or directly competitive with the imported article.

The determination was made in the context of an investigation initiated on May 17, 2017, under section 202 of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. § 2252) in response to a petition filed by Suniva, Inc., and supported by SolarWorld Americas, Inc. Information about this investigation and global safeguard investigations in general can be found


The Commission’s determination resulted from a 4-0 vote. Chairman Rhonda K. Schmidtlein, Vice Chairman David S. Johanson, and Commissioners Irving A. Williamson and Meredith M. Broadbent made affirmative determinations.

As a result of today’s vote, the Commission will proceed to the remedy phase of the investigation. The Commission will hold a public hearing on remedy on October 3, 2017. The Commission will submit its report containing its injury determination, remedy recommendations, certain additional findings, and the basis for them to the President by November 13, 2017.

When the Commission makes an affirmative injury determination in a global safeguard investigation, it is required to make certain additional findings under the implementing statutes for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (Canada and Mexico), the U.S.-Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic), the U.S.-Australia Free Trade Agreement, the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement, the U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement, the Agreement between the United States of America and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan on the Establishment of a Free Trade Area, the U.S.-Panama Trade Promotion Agreement, the U.S.-Peru Free Trade Agreement, and the U.S.-Singapore Free Trade Agreement.

With respect to imports from the NAFTA countries, Chairman Schmidtlein, Vice Chairman Johanson, and Commissioners Williamson and Broadbent found that imports of crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells (whether or not partially or fully assembled into other products) from Mexico account for a substantial share of total imports and contribute importantly to the serious injury caused by imports. Vice Chairman Johanson and Commissioners Williamson and Broadbent made a negative finding with respect to imports from Canada. Chairman Schmidtlein found such imports from Canada account for a substantial share of total imports and contribute importantly to the serious injury caused by imports.

With respect to imports from Korea, Chairman Schmidtlein, Vice Chairman Johanson, and Commissioners Williamson and Broadbent found that imports of crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells (whether or not partially or fully assembled into other products) from Korea are a substantial cause of serious injury or threat thereof.

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With respect to other FTA countries, Chairman Schmidtlein, Vice Chairman Johanson, and Commissioners Williamson and Broadbent found that imports of crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells (whether or not partially or fully assembled into other products) from Australia, CAFTA-DR countries, Colombia, Jordan, Panama, Peru, and Singapore individually are not a substantial cause of serious injury or threat thereof.

These findings will be forwarded to the President as part of the Commission’s report.

The President, not the Commission, will make the final decision concerning whether to provide relief to the U.S. industry and the kind of relief to provide, including with respect to imports from FTA countries.

A public report concerning the investigation will be available after the Commission submits its findings and recommendations to the President.

There Will Always be Sun on this Horizon

A partnership between Beaumont Solar and Horizon Beverage is now powering its operations with clean, renewable solar power. Family-owned Horizon Beverage Company have announced their new 978kW DC solar PV system (for example: GOAL ZERO NOMAD 100 ) is in operation at their Norton, MA distribution facility.

Horizon Beverage selected Beaumont Solar to fully engineer, design and construct the system. Consisting of 2,990 solar panels, Horizon Beverage's rooftop solar system will produce an estimated 1,123,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity annually for the company, lowering their total grid consumption by about 33% For perspective, this much self-generated electricity is equal to the amount of electricity used by 117 average homes per year.

Since inception, Horizon Beverage has fostered an environment of ingenuity, innovation, and expertise to help suppliers, retailers and restaurant entrepreneurs reach their goals while enhancing the careers of their employees. An important part of this philosophy is also to do this in an environmentally conscious "green" manner.

They have implemented company-wide sustainability initiatives to lead responsibly in the beverage distribution industry such as paper-use reduction and recycling approximately 30 million bottles annually. The addition of solar power to their environmentally friendly practices was a natural next step.

"Last Fall we moved forward with the decision to power our Norton, MA facility with solar energy. Offsetting our carbon emissions and increasing our energy efficiency is beneficial to the environment and significantly lowers our energy costs," said Michael Epstein, the company's Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. Horizon Beverage's power costs are now predicable, and represent a significant savings to their bottom line through lowered operating costs which they can then convert to added value for their customers

Beaumont Solar designed the system with a lightweight, ballasted racking component to accommodate the weight load parameters of the roof of the facility's newer section of the building. "One of the design goals was to maximize the amount of power we could produce on the available roof space of the newer section. After evaluating all the options with the Horizon Beverage team and the Beaumont Solar engineering team, the decision was made to go with SunPower panels for this system," said Phillip Cavallo, President and CEO of Beaumont Solar.

"These panels yield a higher production efficiency thereby increasing the total system output."

Along with an in-house engineering and design team, Beaumont Solar possessed the necessary construction resources to self-perform the installation with their "Big C" Construction Services Unit, utilizing nearly 20 of the company's licensed electricians at times.

They also had the internal team to secure an SREC 2 reservation for Horizon Beverage and complete the system on time to meet DOER qualification deadlines. Although the net metering cap in National Grid territory had already been hit, Beaumont Solar also secured Horizon Beverage a place in the application waiting line early on, which paid off; the system ended up being awarded a full net metering reservation as other projects fell out of the queue, just as the system was about to come online.

"We are pleased to be an energy partner with Horizon Beverage by helping to further enhance their energy conservation goals and obtain the most financial incentives possible. Our entire team thanks them for this opportunity and congratulates Horizon Beverage on their decision to utilize clean, solar power," said Cavallo.

Who and What Matters for Small Business Safety

You may like to think that workplace safety is near the top of your watch list, but in reality, most small businesses are so concerned with managing their business and maintaining profit margins that making sure the building is safe falls far by the wayside.

However, the hustle and bustle of your small, booming business is exactly why you must keep up-to-date on your safety procedures and equipment; with so many bodies moving in and around your workplace every day, an accident could easily develop into a horrific disaster under unsafe circumstances.

Once you establish firm safety rules and regulations, it should be easy to keep your small workplace running smoothly and safely. Yet, while you are still developing the protocol, you should keep these groups’ everyday needs in mind.

Clients and Customers

If customers and clients may visit your place of business, their safety should be your first concern. Customer services begins and ends with your customers’ health and happiness, and if they should incur injury or illness due to your unsafe working environment, you will face more than the loss of their business — you will face reputation-ruining lawsuits that could spell the end of your company.

Financing Solutions to Keep Your Small Business Afloat

The business world is tough, especially for start-ups and small to medium sized companies. It doesn’t take long to find yourself short on finances and your bank account on a slippery slope going from black to red. In some cases, all it takes is a late payment from a big customer that halts your cash flow, the loss of an important customer, or an unexpected bill you have to pay right away.

These problems don’t always have to mark the end of your business, but they often make it imperative to find a viable borrowing solution. There are many different options to choose from, and finding the right one for you can be daunting. It involves lot of research, and hours spent weighing the pros and cons and trying to balance your books.

If you’re struggling to know where to turn, here are a few options that you might want to consider:

Bank Overdrafts

Bank overdrafts are one of the best borrowing solutions open to you, and for business accounts, it’s often possible to negotiate an overdraft limit of between £5, 000 and 10,000. Interest is usually low compared to other borrowing options, and this makes it a great solution for most. The downside, however, is that those with a negative credit history will be very limited in terms of the overdraft facilities that are offered to them.

6 Ways to Attract Better Customers to Your Business

Running a business requires fascinating alchemy of hard work, savvy, talent, and luck —just a few of the ingredients necessary for your success. But there is one other element that doesn’t get quite enough press, and that’s finding the right kind of customer.

Whether you run a printing press or a marketing agency, not all customers are created equal. Sometimes it is better to let go of “bad” customers and focus on the ones that are good for your business. But where and how do you find those “good” customers? From being results driven to trusting your gut, here are six ways to attract better customers to your business.

• Never Work for Free

According to Nicholas Reese, there are four types of clients, and the ones you can avoid with this first tip are those that are so overly cost focused, they demand almost everything for free. High-maintenance and bottom line-driven with little concern for results, this type of customer is the worst to work for.
While doing work on the cheap can be helpful when you’re just starting out — after all, you do need to build up a reputation — working for free almost never ends well for the person doing the work, which is why it isn’t worth it for you to do it. The kinds of customers who resist paying for a product or service aren’t customers who will keep you in business, so why bother working to please them anyway? Thankfully, you can usually avoid this type of client by charging a competitive price for your products and services.