President Joe Biden has invoked the Defense Production Act (DPA) and is waiving tariffs on solar panels imported into the U.S. in a bid to boost solar panel manufacturing in America.
“President Biden has invoked the Defense Production Act so that the U.S. can take ownership of its clean energy independence,” Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm said in a statement. “For too long the nation’s clean energy supply chain has been over-reliant on foreign sources and adversarial nations. With the new DPA authority, DOE can help strengthen domestic solar, heat pump and grid manufacturing industries while fortifying America’s economic security and creating good-paying jobs, and lowering utility costs along the way.”
The president is authorizing the U.S. Department of Energy to expand manufacturing of solar panels, building insulation, heat pumps, power grid infrastructure like transformers and equipment for making and using clean electricity-generated fuels.
The new power under the DPA allows the federal government to invest in companies that produce clean energy technologies.
Currently, clean energy by itself isn’t sufficient to meet the nation’s power needs. As a result, the Biden administration is boosting short-term supply by importing solar panels from Asia to head-off disruptions to the power grid.
President Biden has declared an emergency with respect to the nation’s inadequate supply of solar cells, Secretary of Commerce Gina M. Raimondo said in a statement. Under the president’s declaration, no solar cells or modules imported from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand or Vietnam will be subject to tariffs.
“As we invest in expanding domestic solar manufacturing and strengthening supply chains to protect our long-term energy security, imported solar panels remain an important component to addressing the immediate demands of bringing additional energy sources online and addressing the energy needs of the American people," Raimondo said.
