China-based solar power plant developer CECEP Solar Energy Technology Co. Ltd., a unit of the state-owned company China Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection Group, has put its $500 million PV project in the U.S. on hold due to the anti-dumping trade complaint filed by SolarWorld and the Coalition for American Solar Manufacturing last month.
The multi-site project was planned for California, New Jersey and Texas. Reuters reports that CECEP Solar Energy's executives believe that if duties are imposed on Chinese solar panels – a possible outcome of the trade complaint – the project will no longer be financially viable.
‘If the solar panel prices increase by, say 30 percent, in the United States, following the move, then we would certainly drop the plan because there's no profit to be made,’ Cao Huabin, the general manager of CECEP Solar Energy, told a news conference in Beijing, according to Reuters.