“Today President Biden helped U.S. solar in two transformative actions. First, he invoked the Defense Production Act (DPA) to immediately BOOST U.S. MANUFACTURING (PV modules to 22 GW/yr, transformers, inverters, other clean energy equipment) with a range of measures. The DPA enables low-cost financing, loan guarantees, and government procurement (10 GW over the next decade of domestic content solar plus partnering with MUNIs for a goal of another 90 GW). Grid-strengthening, expediting solar on federal lands, and acceleration of community-based DG measures are included.
Secondly, Pres Biden granted a 2 YEAR TARIFF EXEMPTION “Bridge” from PV made in South East Asia (SEA, but not China), providing temporary relief from the Auxin investigation, but allowing the Dept of Commerce to finish its work and enforce whatever decision is merited after 2 years. This will allow dozens of projects such as the Texas plant in the attached photo that I visited last Sept – still with no PV – to receive modules and start generating power, which is badly needed in some parts of the grid for resource adequacy.
Nextracker Inc. has been building 10 GW of U.S. tracker manufacturing capacity with partners at 4 factories in the South, Southwest, and Midwest over the last year, and President Biden’s measures will enable us to increase the amount of US steel we procure and jobs we create; adding production shifts as demand increases. 10’s of thousands of jobs will be created over the coming months through the solar ecosystem.
For those that support tariffs on overseas PV (which made sense a decade ago which some Chinese manufacturers were dumping) and more domestic manufacturing in the U.S., Pres Biden’s actions should be welcomed, because they will enable a robust project pipeline with developers, EPCs, U.S. equipment providers, and financing. US PV manufacturers are sold out for 2+ years, and can enjoy selling and expanding capacity knowing the future tariff protections if warranted, will be enforced.
Nextracker Inc. calls on all participants in the U.S. solar market to support Pres Biden’s actions, and invest in US manufacturing capacity as we have. Supply security, energy independence, clean power, and jobs have never been more important than right now.”
Shug
#usmanufacturing #solar #sustainability #energy #energysecurity
See the post here
