The ITA document lists several counts where the Chinese companies benefited from subsidies. For instance, it cites discounted electricity rates, and because of that added 0.44 percent to the Suntech subsidy rate and 0.47 percent to Trina’s. Illegal grant programs also added 0.59 percent to the Trina subsidy.

Under the Commerce Departments preliminary rulings, Chinese companies have been posting bonds or cash deposits on their U.S.-bound solar cells and modules, and will have to do so until the department reaches a final determination in the case in October.

The allegations by the U.S. manufacturers inflamed the Chinese and prompted a bitter internal fight in the U.S. solar industry. SolarWorld and its Coalition for American Solar Manufacturing cohorts say that without protective duties, U.S. solar PV manufacturing jobs will be lost to China; installers and others in the solar supply chain—many of them gathered under the banner of the Coalition for Affordable Solar Energy (CASE)—say that duties could spell the end of the PV boom that has created tens of thousands of U.S. jobs.

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