Washington on Thursday hit Chinese solar panel makers with punitive import tariffs of up to 250 percent, a controversial move that may not only add to existing China-U.S. trade tensions but also raise domestic worries, as higher solar cell prices could hurt the U.S. renewable energy industry.

The decision, in response to U.S. solar panel makers’ complaints that their Chinese competitors are unfairly subsidized by the Chinese government, is certain to infuriate Chinese officials already upset after recent bilateral frictions over China’s human rights policies and its increasingly confrontational approach toward U.S. allies like the Philippines and Japan, the New York Times said.

Beijing hasn't yet commented on the tariffs, and Chinese solar panel makers may feel numb after suffering losses last year amid U.S. anti-subsidy and anti-dumping investigations.

Those concerns have already prompted them to turn to their neighboring market in a nuclear-free Japan to seek more profits, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

Since the start of this year, at least five Chinese solar panel manufacturers, including Hebei-based Yingli Green Energy, Jiangsu-based Hareon Solar Technology Co., Ltd. and Shanghai-based Chaori Solar Energy Science & Technology Co., Ltd., have set up offices in Japan, eyeing the world's third-largest economy for new business opportunities, Xinhua said.

Chinese exporters (and probably officials) aren’t the only ones annoyed by the decision. U.S. companies that install solar panels, represented by the Coalition for Affordable Solar Energy, oppose import tariffs on the grounds that they make solar panels more expensive.

The new tariff is "a heavy blow to America's solar industry," Jigar Shah, head of the group, said in a statement.

“This decision will increase solar electricity prices in the U.S. precisely at the moment solar power is becoming competitive with fossil fuel-generated electricity,” Shah was cited as saying by the Washington Post.

Dan Ikenson, a Forbes contributor on international trade, also criticized “Washington’s way” in dealing with Chinese solar panel imports.

“Efforts to protect and nurture these chosen industries by keeping foreign competitors at bay is incompatible with the president’s environmentally-driven objective of increasing retail demand for solar energy,” he said in a column published on Thursday.

“Intervening to reduce the supply of solar panels will cause prices to rise and rising prices (particularly in light of abundant cheap alternatives like natural gas) will cause demand to fall.

“Sure, we may be left with some protected producers in the short-run, but how will they endure without customers.”