Green jobs
President Obama's plans to create hundreds of thousands of new green jobs producing clean energy over the next decade are running into some stiff headwinds from Asia.
Last year's $787 billion stimulus package included $2.3 billion in tax credits to subsidize renewable energy manufacturers, including those in the wind and solar sectors. Its effectiveness is debatable.
Government economists credit the program with saving or creating 52,000 jobs.
Speaking recently in New Hampshire, President Obama said: "Can't we all agree that these jobs shouldn't be going to China or Germany or Spain — they should be right here in the United States? Let's put people to work on solar panels and wind towers and cutting-edge batteries."
About 18,000 jobs were created in the solar industry last year, but the wind industry saw a net loss in jobs from 2008, according to the American Wind Energy Association.
Wind and solar energy development are heavily dependent on government subsidies and policies to create a demand for their product and foster job growth. However, some of the very companies receiving substantial government handouts for a few jobs here are investing even more overseas.
Suntech Power Holdings is receiving $2.1 million to build a solar panel plant in Arizona that will employ 70 Americans "to assemble components made by Suntech's 11,000 Chinese workers," Bloomberg News reported.
The plant will assemble 30 megawatts of solar modules a year, but in China the firm expects to expand production capacity by 40 percent to 1,400 megawatts.
First Solar Inc. will add 200 jobs at its Ohio plant with help from $16.3 million in federal aid. But 71 percent of the expansion planned by the manufacturer of thin-film solar-power modules will be in Malaysia.
The reason: cost.
In Wuxi, China, where Suntech is located, workers earn $142 a month compared to $1,320 in the United States.
China has overtaken the United States in wind-turbine production and installations, a concern for U.S. leaders promoting the use of American-made products in alternative energy and stimulus-backed projects. More than half of the world's wind and solar energy equipment is produced in Asia.
Industry leaders and proponents of alternative energy say federal policy will be critical to promoting domestic expansion of manufacturing capabilities. Legislation before Congress would mandate increased reliance on alternative energy to create a demand needed to support investment in factories and jobs.
But even then, the United States will trail its foreign competitors.
