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The United States has vigorously expanded PV manufacturing industry to promote energy transformation

Operating and planning new capacity in the United States

The U.S. installed 4.2GW of new photovoltaic capacity in the first half of the year

According to a report on new energy installations released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration in August, the U.S. added 15 GW of power in the first half of 2022. The top three generation technologies are wind power (5.2GW), natural gas (4.3GW) and solar photovoltaic (4.2GW), followed by battery energy storage systems

The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that 17.8 GW of new photovoltaic installations will be installed in the U.S. in 2022. Only 4.2GW of new PV installations have been installed in the US so far, which means that in the remaining 4 months, need to triple the first half’s installation volume, which is a huge challenge for US PV developers and supply chains.

The United States imports photovoltaic modules, Southeast Asia accounts for 80%

According to the data:

The United States imported about 23 million photovoltaic modules in 2021, and the local manufacturing volume was about 4.2 million modules, and the imported module volume was about 6 times that of local manufacturing.

Of these, China, Singapore, Taiwan and Vietnam exported about 11.3 million components, and Malaysia exported 3.2 million; Nearly 5 million in South Korea, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates; “Other” countries exported nearly 3.5 million.

It can be seen that by 2021, the amount of new photovoltaic modules in the United States mainly depends on Southeast Asian countries

Whether anti-dumping and countervailing duties (AD / CVD) are required for photovoltaic modules exported from Southeast Asian countries

Starting from March 2022, auxin solar, a photovoltaic module assembler, hopes that the US Department of Commerce will have an in-depth understanding of whether the photovoltaic module materials (aluminum frames, silicon wafers, cell sheets and backplanes) in Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam are from China.

The export volume of photovoltaic modules in Southeast Asian countries has been greatly restricted with the beginning of the investigation by the Ministry of Commerce. Because 80% of the import volume of photovoltaic modules in the United States is dependent on Southeast Asian countries, the solar photovoltaic projects in the United States have been postponed and even cancelled.

Therefore, this investigation predicts that the new installed capacity of PV in the United States will be reduced by 6.3gw in 2022. In June 2022, in order to ensure that China can complete the scheduled new installed capacity of PV, Biden requested to suspend any tariffs related to this case for two years, so as to ensure the discharge demand of domestic PV manufacturing enterprises. Although this administrative order gives the photovoltaic installer some breathing space, it temporarily ensures that the project can go online.

However, the U.S. Department of Commerce said that the investigation would not end, and only postponed the preliminary ruling to November 28, 2022.The time for the final decision is postponed to the middle of June 2023

Although Biden’s order eased the supply of solar modules from Southeast Asian countries, the US Customs Department reviewed and detained some photovoltaic modules at the port, and predicted that the new photovoltaic installation in the United States in 2022 and 2023 would be less than the original plan.

Urgent need to expand domestic PV productivity in the United States

The U.S. Department of energy (DOE) said: “significantly expanding the domestic photovoltaic manufacturing industry in the United States can relieve the pressure on the import supply chain.

A study shows that the annual output of photovoltaic manufacturing in the United States has reached about 25gw in 5 years, which can greatly alleviate the threat of energy shortage

PV module productivity in the United States

According to the new inflation reduction act, the incentive measures to offset the manufacturing tax will further promote the production of large-scale photovoltaic manufacturing equipment. In 2025, the first batch of photovoltaic manufacturers can start to produce modules, so as to reward the dependence on imported modules and reduce the pressure of energy crisis