Good News for Solar Farm Companies
June 7, 2022 – It’s good news for solar farms across the United States as President Biden offers a two year reprieve on potential tariffs on solar panels imported from key Asian countries. The four countries named in the order are Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. Reports abounds that these countries are complicit in helping China avoid tariff on panels headed to the USA, a practice fist describe in 2012.
In 2012, the Obama Whitehouse concluded that China was dumping cheap panels on the US market. Tarrifs up to 250% were placed on all Chinese panel imports. This was done in part to encourage US based manufacturing. Overall the massive tariffs have had little effect on boosting US Manufacturing. What the tariffs did achieve was forcing panel manufacturing out of China and into Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.
Biden’s action will help solar farm projects across the nation that are currently stalled because of decreased panel availability and increased prices. Installation companies will no longer need to hold reserve capital to pay potential import tariffs. This will free up cash and help start new projects.
The US Solar Industry
This is a blow to all US based panel maker. It takes time to scale up production to the levels required to satisfy current demand. Now it seems any investments in production have been wasted.
The market has shown that US consumers do not consider country of origin on most products they purchase, and doubly so on solar panels. Panels are the top cost in any solar project, depending on if batteries are used. Most current solar installation do not include costly batteries, relying on the power grid to buffer their output and provide additional needs. For most, it comes down to the cost per kwh. When you take the potential power created, and divide by the cost of all the panels, the difference in domestic and imported panels is huge.
Hopkins County is now home to several solar farm projects. Click here for more solar farm related stores on KSSTRadio.com
