According to the Florida Times Union, the still-unnamed company has pledged to create 800 jobs by the end of next year at its manufacturing and assembly buildings in Jacksonville. The incentives are in the form of tax breaks during the next ten years on the property of the two sites.

The tariffs were recommended to the White House by the U.S. International Trade Commission based on complaints from American solar manufacturers that cheap imports were damaging their business. The largest American solar manufacturer, based in Oregon, has also announced plans to expand business as a result of the new tariffs.

The Jacksonville City Council action comes just months after the Jacksonville Utility Authority (JEA) unanimously approved a major solar-power program that will invest millions expanding its use of solar panels.

Jacksonville’s move to attract a solar manufacturing business is in line with what is happening across the US.

The day Trump signed the proclamation on new solar tariffs, Texas-based solar module manufacturer Mission Solar Energy announced that it’s ramping up production to meet 2018 demand. The company — which had to lay off workers in early 2017 — is also hiring 50 new employees to shift production line operations to a 24/7 schedule, stating that this is just “the first phase in the plan for production increase.”

Also, Oregon-based SolarWorld Americas said it is committed to ramping up production, however, and will finish hiring 200 workers by the end of the year. The company initiated manufacturing again last fall as the trade case advanced.

Domestic solar module makers in particular have been bolstered by the president’s decision to allow for 2.5 gigawatts of tariff-free solar cells to be imported each year, for the four-year duration of the trade remedy.

A group of 10 American crystalline-silicon solar PV (CSPV) module manufacturers, including Mission Solar and Solaria, as well as Tesla, urged the president to implement a trade remedy that would allow for enough tariff-free solar cells to support and grow the domestic solar module manufacturing industry — and they effectively got their wish.

Despite these announcements, some or doubtful about the positive impact of the solar panel tariff.

The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) calculates the trade remedies will trigger 23,000 job losses this year alone across the broader solar industry, which currently employs some 260,000 workers. The Wall Street Journal editorial board wrote this week that “Mr. Trump’s tariffs are an economic blunderbuss that will hit America’s friends abroad and Mr. Trump’s forgotten men and women at home.”

The meeting also allowed project managers to share details about the new solar farm and answer questions from utility customers.

Information provided at the meeting verified that Origis Energy is a privately held company by investors that reside outside the United States.

Tallahassee Reports recently published a story about how payments made by customers will benefit a foreign company and will have a negative impact on the local economy.

When asked about jobs created by the new solar farm, Johan Vanhee, who serves as Managing Director of Operations and Business Development with Origis, said that solar farms are not labor intensive and the project will not create any recurring jobs.

Tallahassee Reports recently published an article addressing the jobs issue.

Vanhee also verified that the $32 million Origis project would benefit from a $9 million tax credit funded by U.S taxpayers.

One question by a citizen about where the solar panels were manufactured was never completely answered.

Vanhee said the panels were purchased from an “American holding company,” but he said he did not know where the panels were manufactured.

At the meeting, Reese Goad, the Acting City Manager, verified that the City of Tallahassee is interested in adding as much solar “as we can get.”

Also, in a contentious part of the meeting, Goad fielded questions about how the city’s solar subscription program is competing with local solar companies.

Goad said the subscription program allows for people who, for various reasons -such as too many trees in their yard, are not able to use roof top solar.

However, Goad did confirm that even homes that would benefit from roof top solar can opt to subscribe to the city program.

Goad said the City is not competing with local solar companies.

However, Matt Chentnik, thew owner of a local solar company, sees it differently.

“The solar subscription program hurts us. It is in direct competition with us,” Chentnik said. “The city is going after our customer base. We have lost customers already.”

Matt Chentnik, who started IGT 10 years ago in his Tallahassee garage, wrote that “the City’s solar subscription program has had a negative impact on our business at Independent Green Technologies LLC (a local state licensed solar contracting company). Since the creation of the City’s solar program, we have had numerous potential clients decide not to purchase solar equipment from us and instead decide to subscribe to the City’s solar program.”

Mr. Chentnik says the subscription program has made the City’s electric utility a competitor with local solar companies.

“This has had a very dramatic, very negative impact on our business which is nearly 100% photovoltaics. The City of Tallahassee in our view, is now acting as a direct competitor to us in our state licensed trade. The City is selling solar generated power at a premium rate to subscribers and is in effect now a direct competitor to all local solar and electrical contracting companies, licensed by the state of Florida to sell and install photovoltaic power systems,” said Mr. Chentnik.

Instead of integrating the power from the solar farm with the power grid, staff with the City’s electric utility developed a subscription program that implies customers can purchase solar power.

Chentnik says, “The City also needs to be clear to the citizens already signed up for this program, and explain to them that with the current grid infrastructure, there is no way of directing strictly solar generated power to their homes and businesses. They are simply paying extra for electricity now partially generated by solar that all COT Electric subscribers will receive without a subscription.”

Chentnik, who ironically pushed for the solar farm and is part of Sustainable Tallahassee, has requested a halt to the solar subscription program until discussions with local solar and electrical companies occur and a way forward can be devised that does not harm local businesses.

Chentnik closed his letter by writing,  “I applaud the City’s move forward with the solar farm, and the excitement they have inspired in the local community. As a Sustainable Tallahassee member, I am certainly in favor of a 100% sustainable energy goal. However, I encourage the City to move forward without excluding and harming local businesses in the process.”