This tariff would have been more useful to US manufacturers if it had been in place before Applied Materials exited the solar cell business and Solyndra went broke.
Given FirstSolar and SunPower are two of the world's largest solar manufacturers, and compete directly with China, I'm sure they're both hoping to benefit from the tariffs. They both outsell nearly every Chinese solar player.
Solyndra was destined to go broke. Consider that they built a factory in the Silicon Valley (super expensive for power and labor) right next to a freeway with a giant copy of their name facing the freeway. They weren't trying to make solar panels: they were trying to advertise themselves to rich commuters to get more dupes to invest in them.
Even looking at them through friendly eyes, you would have to conclude they were idiots for building a factory there.
