US Senators Ossof and Warnock urge Biden administration to lift bifacial solar module exemption

solar panel

In a letter to the US president, senators Jon Ossof and Reverend Raphael Warnock said bifacial modules account for nearly 90% of PV module imports. Image: Image: Pixabay.

US Senators Jon Ossof and Reverend Raphael Warnock have urged the Biden administration to support the domestic solar manufacturing industry by lifting an ongoing tariff exemption on bifacial modules.

In a letter written to US President Joe Biden, the senators urged Biden to remove the exemption for bifacial modules, which account for nearly 90% of PV module imports. “Removing this exemption would alleviate pricing pressure and bolster the growth of an important US industry,” reads the letter.

Earlier this month, the two senators pressed the Biden Administration to take action and eliminate the tariff exemption for bifacial modules under Section 201 of the Trade Act of 1974 in order to increase the competitive advantage of US-made bifacial module manufacturers. The senators highlighted a recent report from the US International Trade Commission, which determined that US imports of bifacial modules doubled between 2020 and 2022.

This follows demands from four US senators – including Ossof and Warnock along with Sherrod Brown and Marco Rubio – to increase tariffs on Chinese-made PV modules, cells and wafer imports.

Strengthen domestic supply chain of solar PV components

The Solar Energy Manufacturers for America (SEMA) Coalition called for a “strengthening [of] the domestic supply chain to produce solar components” last week, after publishing a report into the US’ reliance on Chinese-made modules. The report highlighted supply gaps in domestic production of modules, wafers and cells. The issue was also highlighted in a guest article for PV Tech last December by advisory body, Clean Energy Associates, in which it wrote that the US was facing an imbalance of domestic module capacity versus cells.

“The solar manufacturing industry is at a crucial turning point, spurred by incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act. During the final two years of the 201 tariffs, it is essential that their implementation supports the growing US solar manufacturing industry, which is critical to our nation’s energy security and energy independence from China,” Ossoff and Warnock wrote. “In Georgia, companies have already invested over $2.98 billion in solar manufacturing, projecting thousands of new clean energy jobs to our states.”

This latest request from senators Ossof and Warnock echoes recent comments from cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin-film solar manufacturer First Solar’s CEO, Mark Widmar, ina US Senate Finance Committee. Widmar said that the US solar manufacturing industry “remains in a precarious position, despite the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)”.

The full letter from US senators Ossof and Warnock to US President Joe Biden can be read here.