A new report from Clean Energy Associates and commissioned by the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) outlines how new tariffs from the latest antidumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) investigation on solar cells and panels could increase costs to a level that would significantly restrict solar supply and installations in the United States.

The report expresses that the imposition of unpredictable AD/CVD on solar imports from Southeast Asia could raise the American-made module cost by 10¢/W and the imported module cost by 15¢/W. Without significant solar cell manufacturing happening with the United States, American module assemblers will still have to import solar cells, which are predominantly made in Southeast Asia. These higher prices combined with other trade restrictions already in place could “seriously hinder America’s progress on solar deployment.”

“Today, solar is one of the most affordable and reliable energy sources we have to power our economy,” said ACORE President and CEO Ray Long. “Injecting uncertainty into the market slows economic growth and the good-paying jobs clean energy creates, undermines U.S. climate objectives, and will inevitably raise energy costs for American families. This is not an appropriate course of action and could unintentionally cede U.S. leadership in the solar industry to other countries.”

The report also provides an assessment on the potential scale of U.S. manufacturing capacity. While American module assemblers could reach 60 GW of annual production, CEA believes cell manufacturing will stall out at 12 GW. Without domestic cells, module assemblers will continue to rely on imported products with high tariffs.

The “Potential Impacts of the 2024 Antidumping and Countervailing Duties on the U.S. Solar Industry” report can be downloaded here.