The Trump administration just imposed tariffs of at least 15% on imported polysilicon and set minimum prices on many parts of the solar supply chain.
Polysilicon is the ultra-purified silicon (basically refined sand, made from quartz) that gets sliced into wafers, built into cells, and assembled into the solar panels on your roof.
It’s also a key ingredient in the computer chips inside your phone and laptop. Right now, China makes the vast majority of the world’s Polysilicon.
Here’s the Trump Administration’s plan to make sure more solar is made here in the U.S., based on reporting from Reuters and Bloomberg:
Impose 15% or more tariffs on imported polysilicon.
Add legal minimums on how cheaply imported polysilicon, wafers, cells, and modules can be sold in the U.S.
A built-in delay before the rules kick in, so U.S. manufacturers who currently rely on imported parts have time to adjust.
Offsets for companies that invest big in American manufacturing.
The move follows a year-long national security investigation by the Commerce Department into where our polysilicon comes from.
This Week In Solar is always brought to you by Exact Solar, your locally owned, twenty-year-old solar installer for Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Energy costs are skyrocketing in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and no one has a good plan to fix it.
You can’t control what the power company charges next year, but you can opt out of the cycle by going solar.
Our customers have told us over and over again that they don’t get mad anymore when the power company raises rates, because it just doesn’t even apply to them.
If you live in New Jersey or Pennsylvania, we’d love to show you the numbers.
Energy costs are at an all-time high, solar is the cheapest power source available (and fastest to deploy), and policy will make solar components more expensive.
Tariffs and price floors push equipment costs up. So as families across the country are getting hit by electricity bills, the one choice they have is about to get more expensive.
But a tariff like this only matters if your solar installer hasn’t planned ahead. Exact Solar has.
We’ve already pre-secured a large supply of solar modules and solar components that qualify for domestic content (which won’t be subject to the same regulations).
And because everyone’s finances look different, Exact Solar doesn’t box you into one way of paying for solar. We’ve partnered with organizations like Clean Energy Credit Union and the Amicus Solar Co-operative to make sure we can offer ethical financing that we can stand behind as a locally-owned company.
No matter how you want to go solar, we have a way to finance that will get panels on your roof and lower your energy bills.
Tariffs come and go, but the value of making your own clean power at a fixed cost while everyone else’s bill keeps climbing doesn’t.
If you live in New Jersey or Pennsylvania, now’s the time to contact Exact Solar and see what the numbers look like for your home.
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