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White House officials met with solar manufacturers Tuesday about the Biden administration’s plan to boost domestic panel manufacturing and decouple US clean energy
projects from foreign imports.
The roughly hour-long meeting with more than 20 industry representatives was designed to shed light on President Joe Biden’s move last week to boost domestic solar manufacturing under the Defense Production Act, multiple people familiar with the session said. . They requested anonymity because the virtual meeting was not public.
White House officials, including deputy national climate adviser Ali Zaidi, who led the session, said the meeting was just the beginning of efforts to work with industry to ensure more solar panels are made in the US. They said the Defense Production Act movement is just one tool in a toolbox that the administration will use in its quest to expand the solar supply chain.
That didn’t reassure manufacturers with questions about the lack of funding behind the president’s statement. Biden’s move was combined with a two-year waiver of new tariffs on
solar power imports from four Southeast Asian countries in a bid to neutralize a trade dispute that has chilled renewable projects across the United States.
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Samantha Sloan, vice president of global policy at First Solar Inc., said the meeting “only served to underscore the troubling disconnect between the realities of solar manufacturing
and the administration’s understanding of key issues.”
The meeting “did not result in any alignment on the way forward,” Sloan said by email.
A White House official said the meeting reflected the administration’s commitment to quickly bring new clean energy manufacturing online in the US.
Participants emphasized the urgency of pushing such projects amid the climate crisis and highlighted the opportunity to ensure the technology they depend on is made in the United States, the White House official said.
The Zoom-based meeting included a representative from Jinko Solar Co., a China-based manufacturer with a plant in Florida, as well as factories across Asia that may have faced expanded tariffs under a recent trade investigation, two people familiar with the matter said. the discussion.
Representatives from several other solar manufacturers were included, including Hanwha Q Cells Co. and Auxin Solar Inc., the California-based company that successfully petitioned the Commerce Department to open the investigation. The major solar trade groups that fought against the probe were also present.
Manufacturers pressed White House officials for details on how the president’s executive action will catalyze new government support for domestic panel makers given funding
constraints, the people said. Manufacturers have also pushed the administration to do more to push through legislation in Congress that expands tax incentives for renewable projects and clean energy manufacturing.
