On January 22, 2018, the Trump Administration announced a 30 percent tariff on solar panels and cells imported into the United States. This announcement raised a lot of questions for solar customers on the EnergySage Solar Marketplace. One of the most popular questions: where can I find solar panels that are made in America?
If you’re an avid reader of our biweekly solar news roundups, you may have noticed that it looks a bit different this week. Because we cover a wide variety of topics across the energy industry, we decided to better reflect this in our news roundups – so you can now look forward to the biweekly energy news roundup going forward.
This week, we discuss the Biden administration’s two-year freeze on solar tariffs and an exciting milestone in the U.S. energy storage industry.
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In this week’s news roundup, we discuss an important update in solar legislation in North Carolina and cover potential tariffs on solar panels made in Southeast Asia.
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As one of the largest solar companies based in the United States, chances are you’ve heard of First Solar. Headquartered in Tempe, Arizona, this company has been in the news recently, in part due to the unique solar product they manufacture.
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In this week’s Solar News Roundup, General Motors sides with California in an important legal fight about clean air standards, and bifacial solar panels lose their exemption from the U.S. Section 201 solar tariffs.
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In February 2018, the Trump Administration’s tariffs on imported solar goods went into effect. Now, two years on, the US International Trade Commission (US ITC) just released its mid-term review of the impact of the solar tariffs. Pulling from that report, as well as a study from the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and an analysis of our own data, here’s a look at how the tariffs have impacted solar shoppers and solar jobs over the last two years.
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One of the primary stories in the solar over the last two years has been the ongoing trade dispute between the United States and China. From tariffs on imported solar panels from China to a sharp decline in imported American polysilicon to China, the political back-and-forth has developed a sense of uncertainty around the solar industry in this country. However, with January 15th’s Phase 1 trade deal, the solar industry can breathe a partial sigh of relief. Here are a few of the immediate ramifications of the deal, and the ways in which this initial trade deal may ease future uncertainty for solar in the US.
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This week, I had the opportunity to join the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) for their Solar Shines on the Hill Day. The event is a great opportunity to show up in force in Washington DC in support of the solar industry, talking about how the solar jobs that exist throughout the country, and the financial and environmental benefits that home- and business-owners experience from solar in every state. Here’s a quick recap of what we spoke about and what we learned.
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Earlier this month, EnergySage published our eighth Solar Marketplace Intel Report™. The publicly available report provides data on the state of the solar market nationwide and at the state level, the breakdown of equipment packages quoted by solar installation companies, and additional energy interests from solar shoppers. Our key takeaways are outlined below. We welcome your analysis of this data as well!
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Update: a new section was added at the bottom of this article in September 2018 to show the tariff’s impact on residential solar prices
We’ve been receiving lots of questions about the new solar tariff from shoppers on the EnergySage Solar Marketplace. Here’s the bottom line for homeowners: this tariff will increase the cost of a typical home solar installation by $500 to $1,000. The good news is that comparison-shopping on EnergySage can save you between $1,500 and $3,000. For commercial customers, the savings could be even higher (more on that later.)
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