The US solar market was widely expected to thrive this year, but various policy headwinds have destabilised the module procurement market and created uncertainty to such an extent installations stalled. Liam Stoker reflects on events of the last 12 months.
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is expected to add an extra US$110 billion in investment for utility-scale solar in the US by 2030, increasing the country's utility-scale deployment by more than 70GW.
US solar tracker manufacturer FTC Solar has cut its net losses compared with last quarter and Q2 2021 but has seen its revenue collapse, blaming a hostile solar environment in the US that has seen project delays and cancellations, which it said it now hoped was coming to an end.
US utility-scale solar installations in Q2 2022 were down 53% year-on-year as policy headwinds and trade issues impacted development and increased the backlog of delayed projects, a new report has revealed.
Despite US President Joe Biden’s AD/CVD intervention, US solar continues to face delays owing to a “bubble” of demand that has built up over the last year.
Earlier this week (14 June), White House officials and solar manufacturers sat down with one another to discuss how the Biden Administration could kickstart PV manufacturing via its recently enacted Defense Production Act (DPA).
With President Biden declaring a two-year freeze on new tariffs on solar imports from Southeast Asia, questions have been raised about the legality of the move as industry stakeholders assess the risk of it being challenged in court.
The US solar market experienced its worst quarter for installations since the start of the pandemic in Q1 2022, weighed down by regulatory and supply chain issues.
US President Joe Biden’s decision to waive import tariffs on solar modules and other components for two years promises to thaw what had become a frozen market. PV Tech Insights will explore the next steps for US solar.
