U.S.-China Trade Tensions: Tariff talk dominates world's largest solar conference

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02:41

The ongoing trade disputes between China and the US are also casting a shadow over the world's biggest solar-power convention in California. CGTN's May Lee reports.

More than 20-thousand people from around the world, including one giant polar bear have one thing on their minds this week in Anaheim, California: solar power and how to make more of it.

But tariffs imposed on solar imports by U.S. President Donald Trump is casting a shadow over many vendors, service providers and manufacturers.

JASON ASUNCION REXEL "With certain places the components are really the issue because they're all being sourced in China so we're seeing anywhere from 15-20% increase on pricing and for a lot of companies, they can't bite the bullet on that and incur the cost."

Chinese companies in particular are feeling the brunt of the tariffs as the trade war between the U.S. and China continues to ramp up.

The friction is pushing some Chinese companies to find new ways to reduce tariffs and other obstacles.

WANG YUANHUI POWERCHINA "The US market is very important to us so right now we're developing the business here. We're looking for local partners in engineering, design and low cost subcontractors for construction."

Other Chinese companies like Longi, the world's leading manufacturer of mono-crystalline solar modules, are manufacturing products elsewhere where the tariff burden is lower.

FANG HONGBIN LONGI SOLAR "We have most of our manufacturing capacity are located in China but for the US because of the tariff, we have set up a factory in Malaysia."

But for HT-SAAE, manufacturer of Photo-voltaic solar panels, it stayed ahead of the tariffs by building a facility in Turkey 3 years ago where exports to the U.S. are free of any tax and the company has even bigger plans.

ROBIN XI HT-SAAE "Our American market this year increased huge so we decided to build a new factory in America and we can supply to customer not from Turkey but also from America. It will be win-win for our company to our customers."

That may be the case for HT-SAAE, but for now there's a lot more uncertainty for many others in the solar industry.

MAY LEE ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA "There is one thing that most in the solar industry agree with regardless of policies, trade wars and other obstacles, the short-term pain is worth the long-term gain. As one Chinese solar executive told me, the train has left the station so there's no turning back on solar energy now. May Lee, CGTN, Anaheim."