(Image credit: cbarnesphotography)
Solar pv manufacturers in the United States (US) are calling for the Biden Administration to implement stricter tariffs on solar imports.
China is currently the leading solar supplier in the world for solar pv. Chinese based solar panels have assisted in halving the global price of solar pv, reaching 10cents a watt. Whilst this global price decrease has led to a boom for renewable energy developers, it has damaged the success of solar manufactures in the US. Solar manufacturers want the Biden Administration to put stronger tariffs in place on solar imports to help develop a domestic supply chain of solar pv in the US.
Currently, power companies in the US are favouring cheaper imports over more expensive domestic panels.
The government in the US already has a 14% import tax on solar imports, with an additional 25% on Chinese imports. This can raise to 200% if the imports are found to be from a Chinese manufacturer who have set up a factory in another region of Asia to avoid higher import tariffs. The US have imposed such strict tariffs on Chinese imports because of ‘China’s discriminative trade practices’.
First Solar and Heliene are two of the solar manufactures in the US that have called for stronger import tariffs. The conversation around stricter import tariffs on solar pv has put the solar industry in the US in a difficult position, especially when cheaper panel prices are a key part of the deployment of solar technology in the US. With 36GW worth of solar energy expected to be deployed this year, the US must find a solution to efficiently meet net zero targets.
The Solar Energy Industry Association have explained that the US will always have a combination of imported and domestically produced solar panels in its energy mix. The worry is not to completely neglect domestic production because of cheaper prices.
The Bill Gates backed solar wafer manufacturer Cubie PV have already scrapped plans to build a 10GW factory due to the dramatic collapse in solar pv prices. BloombergNEF have found that the US imported 50GW of panels between January-November 2023 and are anticipating cancellations and delays in US solar manufacturing to reach more than 115GW.
To combat this, First Solar have announced new factories in Alabama and Louisiana. Swiss based solar manufacturer Meyer Burger have shut its facility in Germany to boost manufacturing Colorado and Arizona. Meyer Burger have opened these factories in the US because Europe is close to losing its strategic industry due to mass Chinese imports.
These new factories will boost the amount of solar pv manufactured in the US but the country must keep hold of this domestic supply of solar pv.
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