Back then, SolarWorld Americas, a subsidiary of a now-bankrupt German panel maker, filed a trade complaint along with six other domestic solar manufacturers that accused their Chinese counterparts of using unfair government subsidies to finance their operations and then selling their merchandise for less than the cost of manufacturing and shipping it.

SolarWorld, which has joined Suniva’s petition, won that battle, as well as a second case that included Taiwan, where Chinese manufacturers had turned for cells to avoid anticipated tariffs.

After the imposition of tariffs beginning in 2012 that ranged from about 20 percent to about 55 percent for the largest cell and panel makers, manufacturers outside China and Taiwan — including those in the United States like SolarWorld and Suniva — saw their fortunes rise. In 2014, SolarWorld Americas, based in Oregon, announced a $10 million expansion of its plant and plans to hire hundreds more workers to meet surging demand for solar panels.

Suniva had grown out of government-supported research at Georgia Tech to become one of the largest American makers of solar cells and finished modules. But the much larger Chinese manufacturers that came to dominate the global market kept up the pressure on price. Seeking a much-needed infusion of cash to finance an anticipated expansion, Suniva sold a majority stake in 2015 to a Chinese company, Shunfeng International Clean Energy, which wanted to get a foothold in what it believed was a growing American market.

Then came a glut of cheap, new panels as Chinese manufacturers began operating or contracting with factories in countries like Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, the petition charges. Last year, the Chinese government suggested it might slash its domestic incentives for buyers of solar panels, sharply reducing demand for equipment and adding to the oversupply. Manufacturers cut their prices to compensate, which sent global prices plummeting. Even though China ended up shaving subsidies just slightly and only for large power-plant arrays, prices remained low.

As panel prices dropped to about 40 cents per watt in late 2016 from 57 cents per watt in 2015, American solar installations reached a record high, making solar energy the biggest source of new electricity generation last year. But the domestic industry’s share of the panel market, which had been declining since 2013, tumbled to 11 percent in 2016 from 17.1 percent the previous year, according to the market research firm IBISWorld.