Over 400 US solar companies have sent a letter to Congress advising against the repeal of Joe Biden’s two-year waiver on solar import tariffs, led by trade body the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA).
The US market is expected to see a strong uptick in overall module supply, both domestic and overseas, in 2023. Alongside this will be a range of different module technologies, making the US market the most differentiated from a technology standpoint this year.
Solar PV manufacturer Astronergy has signed a deal with Romanian energy company EXIMPROD Grup to supply 200MW worth of its PV modules to the group’s pipeline of five solar projects.
Indian solar manufacturer Rayzon Solar has announced plans to set up a 500MW solar module factory in the US and expand its existing Indian production capacity by a further 1GW.
India added 12.8GW of solar PV in the FY2023, an 8% decrease year-on-year according to JMK Research. 2022 saw the country experience significant module shortages as it strains to build out its domestic manufacturing profile and lessen its dependence on imports from the east.
As the PV industry reckons with its social and environmental impact and the byproducts of its processes, beyond the near-term questions over provenance and manufacturing ethics, concerns at the horizon of a module’s lifespan are coming more and more into focus.
PV manufacturer Huasun has signed a 1.5GW module supply deal with Bulgarian engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) company Inercom to run through to the end of 2025.
PV module prices are set to fall considerably in the next five years, though US market prices will remain higher than the rest of the world as its import policies and ongoing competition with China add a market premium.
2GW worth of solar PV modules were detained at the US border throughout 2022 as a result of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), representing 1,423 individual shipments.