US President Joe Biden on the White House in Washington, US, May 15, 2024. [Photo/Agencies]
The Joe Biden administration’s doubling of the import tax on Chinese photo voltaic cells to 50 p.c on Tuesday was opposed by some US contractors.
The White House stated the rise would “shield towards overcapacity pushed by China’s coverage that has lowered costs and stifled the event of photo voltaic capability outdoors of China”. The administration plans to exclude from the tariff tools used to fabricate home photo voltaic panels.
The problem of tariffs on photo voltaic merchandise has pitted US producers who need to be shielded from what they see as Chinese rivals towards contractors and installers searching for low-cost imported panels.
Jim, a house builder in Charleston, South Carolina, who gave just one identify, stated it was the unsuitable resolution.
“South Carolina has sunshine, and I would like photo voltaic panels to get it,” he stated. “The new tariff will imply I pay extra and so will the shopper.”
He stated lots of his clients are current retirees who moved to the state due to the decrease value of dwelling they usually cannot afford any worth will increase.
Keith, who has bought actual property in Charleston for 15 years and requested to not use his full identify, stated: “It’s laborious now with rates of interest to promote something. People need photo voltaic as a result of it’s going to decrease their electrical charges. select to spend more cash to place in a pool somewhat than larger prices for extra photo voltaic panels.”
Hurdle for cleaner vitality
Abigail Ross Hopper, president of the Solar Energy Industries Association, a U.S. commerce group, stated the brand new tariffs additionally successfully symbolize one other impediment to the Biden administration’s aim of shifting the U.S. towards cleaner vitality. vitality.
“This misstep can have a devastating impression on the US photo voltaic market at a time when photo voltaic costs are rising, and undertaking delays and cancellations are rising,” he stated in an announcement.
One of the important thing steps within the international provide chain of the photo voltaic trade – the manufacturing of polysilicon photo voltaic wafers processed into photo voltaic cells – virtually fully takes place in China.
Although U.S. corporations can produce uncooked polysilicon, and a few U.S. factories make photo voltaic modules, the trade is sort of fully depending on China for half of the provision chain, photo voltaic trade consultants say. There is not any US manufacturing unit that makes photo voltaic wafers or cells at scale.
The administration of former president Donald Trump imposed a separate set of worldwide tariffs on the photo voltaic trade in 2018. In February, the Biden administration expanded these tariffs however lowered their scope by doubling the variety of photo voltaic cell to enter the US with out going through any taxes, an try to resolve the conflicting pursuits of home producers and home installers.
Chinese photo voltaic cells represented lower than 1 p.c of complete U.S. photo voltaic cell imports within the first half of final 12 months, based on knowledge from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
In 2012, the US banned virtually your entire use of Chinese-made photo voltaic cells and modules with restrictive anti-dumping and countervailing duties, shifting US photo voltaic provide chains to the Southeast. Asia, stated Pol Lezcano, a senior photo voltaic analyst at BloombergNEF.
