President Joe Biden will extend solar tariffs that were imposed by former President Donald Trump, but with adjustments to exempt more imports from the tax.
The tariffs will be extended for four years with exemptions for bifacial solar panels as well as for the first 5 GW of solar cells imported annually, according to a White House proclamation Feb. 4.
"I have determined that an extension of this safeguard measure will provide greater economic and social benefits than costs," Biden said in the document.
The announcement is in line with a December 2021 recommendation from the U.S. International Trade Commission to extend the trade protections in order to "prevent or remedy serious injury" to domestic manufacturers from foreign competition.
The Solar Energy Industries Association, or SEIA, a trade group that has opposed import tariffs, said the Biden administration had found a "balanced solution" for solar project developers and equipment manufacturers.
"With this chapter behind us, now it's time to roll up our sleeves and help ensure the passage of long-term federal investments in domestic manufacturing and, in particular, the Solar Energy Manufacturing for America Act," SEIA President and CEO Abigail Ross Hopper said in a statement. The Solar Energy Manufacturing for America Act was part of Democrats' sweeping social spending package known as the Build Back Better Act, which is currently stalled in the U.S. Senate.
"This is how we will ensure the legacy of American solar manufacturing for many decades to come," Hopper added.
The American Clean Power Association, or ACP, which calls itself the "leading voice for clean energy project development," also applauded the administration's decision.
Extending the tariffs with an exclusion for bifacial solar panels "is a win for jobs and a win for the president's climate agenda" while giving U.S.-based manufacturers "four more years to adjust to import competition as intended by the statute," ACP CEO Heather Zichal said in a statement.
Solar manufacturers, however, expressed disappointment.
"The decision to exclude bifacial modules and to expand the tariff rate quota on cells reduces the value of the safeguard to not much more than the paper it is written on," Auxin Solar LLC CEO Mamun Rashid said in a statement. "Gutting the safeguard this way makes it almost impossible to believe that we will ever produce solar cells, solar wafers, or polysilicon for solar production in this country ever again. This decision undermines our energy independence and our national security."
Andy Munro, general counsel for Q CELLS America, said the administration's decision would "make it meaningfully harder to create good-paying solar manufacturing jobs in the U.S. and build our clean energy future in America."
"We encourage the White House to leverage tools like the Buy American Act to support domestic solar manufacturing and work with Congress to quickly enact the Solar Energy Manufacturing for America Act to ensure our clean energy future is made in America and our supply chains are not at risk," Munro said in a statement.