When President Donald Trump imposed a 30 percent tariff on solar panel imports, energy leaders in New Mexico said the industry would see it through, but had to brace for some unpleasant times.
On Tuesday, Mercom Capital Group, an Austin-based research and communication service, released a first-quarter report on corporate and venture capital funding to the solar sector nationally, which sat at $2 billion from 43 deals. At the end of fourth quarter 2017, total corporate funding, which is made up of venture capital funding, debt financing and public market financing, was at $5.7 billion from 63 deals.
Mercom attributed the drastic drop from quarter to quarter to Trump's 30 percent tariff on solar modules along with the potential trade war between the United States and China, which created uncertainty for solar investors.
In January, after Trump initially imposed the tariffs, Sen. Martin Heinrich said he believed that long term, the solar industry will get back on track, but the raised tariffs could lead to some unpleasant times in the interim.
"I think the industry will see this through," Heinrich said in a phone interview in January, "though in the short term, there will be individual jobs — tens of thousands of them — that will be negatively affected."
The Land of Enchantment ranked No. 29 overall for solar jobs in 2017 with 2,522 employees, but No. 9 for solar jobs per capita. The state also ranked No. 16 in the amount of solar installations installed, with 697 megawatts, according to a report from The Solar Foundation.
Christopher Fortson, a marketing manager with SunPower by Positive Energy Solar, said in January his company's personnel wasn't likely to be affected by the tariffs, but said the state's rapid solar growth would likely end.
