The PV Review, Q3 2021: Trade disputes, M&A and a realisation of the climate reality

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Reddit
Email
Renewables were found to be more than half the price of fossil fuels in most of Europe. Image: Iberdrola.

As 2021 draws to a close, PV Tech is reviewing the year in solar, reflecting on some of the biggest stories and hottest trends of the last 12 months. Part one of our year in review can be read here and part two can be read here. In today’s review we look back on the industry’s third quarter, which saw an escalation of trade disputes between China and the US.


Trade relations between China and the US have never exactly been harmonious, however they erupted in Q3 2021 when the Biden administration took action on alleged forced labour practices in Xinjiang by introducing a Withhold Release Order (WRO) on polysilicon imports from a raft of companies based in the region.

This article requires Premium SubscriptionBasic (FREE) Subscription

Unlock unlimited access for 12 whole months of distinctive global analysis

Photovoltaics International is now included.

  • Regular insight and analysis of the industry’s biggest developments
  • In-depth interviews with the industry’s leading figures
  • Unlimited digital access to the PV Tech Power journal catalogue
  • Unlimited digital access to the Photovoltaics International journal catalogue
  • Access to more than 1,000 technical papers
  • Discounts on Solar Media’s portfolio of events, in-person and virtual

Or continue reading this article for free

The WRO had the potential to change the face of US module supply effectively overnight, prohibiting imports of solar cells and modules that could be traced back to polysilicon originating from Hoshine Silicon Metal, one of China’s foremost providers of metallurgical silicon. While there are, of course, other providers, the blending of polysilicon in China made traceability doubly hard and would stand to cause importers no end of headaches in the short-term.

For a while at least, the industry continued on, albeit with a sense of trepidation. While the WRO was announced with much fanfare by US Customs and Border Protection, there was no specific list of companies under suspicion of infringing the WRO, and so modules continued to be shipped into the country. It wasn’t until mid-August that the first shipments began to be detained at the US border, targeting JinkoSolar in particular, with further manufacturers to follow later in the year.

The WRO was just one element of trade policy that would loom over the US market in Q3, however. In early August a coalition of US-based solar manufacturers would file a petition with the Department of Commerce calling for an investigation into alleged circumvention of anti-dumping and countervailing duties by Chinese solar manufacturers using Southeast Asian subsidiaries, essentially calling for an extension of AD/CVD tariffs to a list of manufacturers based in countries including Taiwan, Vietnam and Malaysia.

That coalition, dubbed American Solar Manufacturers Against Chinese Circumvention (A-SMACC), remained anonymous, citing fear of retaliatory measures, however other companies in the US, notably developer NextEra Energy, called for them to be unmasked. It would prove to be a prophetic move, as the coalition’s anonymity would come back to bite it later in the year.  

Elsewhere on the policy front, President Joe Biden’s legislative agenda was advancing. The bipartisan infrastructure bill passed the Senate in early August – although it wouldn’t be for another few months before it could be signed into law – paving the way for billions of dollars of investments into the US grid. Attention after quickly turned to the budget reconciliation bill, what would become better known as the Build Back Better act, which was to house the majority of policy initiatives Democrats intended to push through without the need of a super majority in the Senate.

Full details included within the draft bill, published in mid-September, revealed just how transformative the measures could be for US solar. A ten-year extension of the investment tax credit would also see the addition of support for standalone energy storage, while the reintroduction of production tax credits would also support utility-scale solar farms with generation incentives.

The bill, therefore, stood to pose as a significant boon for a market that data published in early August showed had already risen by more than 4000% in the previous decade. It was perhaps of no real surprise then to see investments and M&A in the US solar sector begin to spike, with Cypress Creek Renewables acquired by private equity firm EQT in early July.

Outside of the US, the news was comparatively mixed. While a study conducted by energy thinktank Ember found that renewables were now half the price of fossil fuels across Europe, driven by continued innovation and cost reductions, it was quickly becoming clear that supply chain constraints and material pricing was being felt. Murmuring of project delays and pushbacks were quickly becoming common place, leading to many analysts to cut their initial forecasts. BloombergNEF, having originally forecast that just over 200GW of solar PV stood to be installed in 2021, trimmed that projection to 191GW and warned that deployment was set to fall far short of the levels necessary to comply with international climate targets in 2030.

A previous report, published in July, found that attaining net zero status would require as much as 455GW to be installed each year by 2030, with cumulative capacity reaching 20TW by the pivotal 2050 date. BloombergNEF’s update in September however reported that its mid-case scenario pegged global solar installations at 311GW by 2030 – far short of what is required.

With COP26 just around the corner, it was quickly becoming clear that for all of the industry’s positive movement in 2021, more was still needed.

7 October 2025
San Francisco Bay Area, USA
PV Tech has been running an annual PV CellTech Conference since 2016. PV CellTech USA, on 7-8 October 2025 is our third PV CellTech conference dedicated to the U.S. manufacturing sector. The events in 2023 and 2024 were a sell out success and 2025 will once again gather the key stakeholders from PV manufacturing, equipment/materials, policy-making and strategy, capital equipment investment and all interested downstream channels and third-party entities. The goal is simple: to map out PV manufacturing in the U.S. out to 2030 and beyond.
21 October 2025
New York, USA
Returning for its 12th edition, Solar and Storage Finance USA Summit remains the annual event where decision-makers at the forefront of solar and storage projects across the United States and capital converge. Featuring the most active solar and storage transactors, join us for a packed two-days of deal-making, learning and networking.
10 March 2026
Frankfurt, Germany
The conference will gather the key stakeholders from PV manufacturing, equipment/materials, policy-making and strategy, capital equipment investment and all interested downstream channels and third-party entities. The goal is simple: to map out PV manufacturing out to 2030 and beyond.
16 June 2026
Napa, USA
PV Tech has been running PV ModuleTech Conferences since 2017. PV ModuleTech USA, on 16-17 June 2026, will be our fifth PV ModulelTech conference dedicated to the U.S. utility scale solar sector. The event will gather the key stakeholders from solar developers, solar asset owners and investors, PV manufacturing, policy-making and and all interested downstream channels and third-party entities. The goal is simple: to map out the PV module supply channels to the U.S. out to 2027 and beyond.

Read Next

July 14, 2025
Solar and storage developer MN8 Energy has raised US$575 million to refinance three PV projects in North Carolina, Kentucky and Illinois.
July 14, 2025
OpenSolar has launched a new model to help US rooftop solar installers reduce costs and thrive despite the loss of the 30% IRA tax credit.
July 14, 2025
Analyst Wood Mackenzie has forecast that solar PV and wind installations in the US will be 100GW lower than expected between 2025 and 2030 with the removal of Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) incentives.
July 11, 2025
Sabanci Renewables, the North American subsidiary of Turkish conglomerate Sabanci Holdings, is building a 156MWdc solar project in McLennan County, Texas.
July 11, 2025
Renewable electricity generation has grown more than twice as fast as total global electricity generation since 2012, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).
July 11, 2025
The Asia Pacific (APAC) region has accounted for 69% of the 589GW solar PV inverters shipped in 2024, according to a report from analyst Wood Mackenzie.

Subscribe to Newsletter

Upcoming Events

Media Partners, Solar Media Events
September 2, 2025
Mexico City, Mexico
Solar Media Events
September 16, 2025
Athens, Greece
Solar Media Events
September 22, 2025
Bilbao, Spain
Solar Media Events
September 30, 2025
Seattle, USA
Solar Media Events
October 1, 2025
London, UK