Exclusive-US plans to restore tariffs on dominant solar technology, sources say
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The Biden administration is expected to grant a request by South Korea’s Hanwha Qcells to reverse a two-year-old trade exemption that has allowed imports of a dominant solar panel technology from China and other countries to avoid tariffs. The request comes as Qcells is seeking to protect a pledged $2.5 billion expansion of its U.S. solar manufacturing presence against competition from cheaper Asian-made products. The solar division of Korean conglomerate Hanwha Corp outlined the request in a formal petition to the U.S. Trade Representative on Feb. 23. No decision has been made on the timeline of the expected reversal. Duties on imports of bifacial panels, the main technology in utility-scale solar projects, would be a boon to the more than 40 solar equipment factories planned since U.S. President Joe Biden signed his landmark climate change law, the Inflation Reduction Act, in 2022. The top U.S. solar trade group, the Solar Energy Industries Association, lobbied for the bifacial exemption. Qcells, which has two factories in Georgia, is the largest U.S. producer of silicon-based solar products. In its petition, the company asked Biden to revoke an exemption of so-called bifacial panels from duties first imposed by Republican former President Donald Trump in 2018 and extended by Biden, a Democrat, in 2022. The tariffs on imported modules started at 30% and currently stand at 14.25%. They are due to expire in 2026. Bifacial panels can generate electricity on both sides. The technology was nascent when the tariffs were first imposed but now accounts for 98% of imported modules, according to the petition. Qcells' request is supported by seven other solar manufacturers with U.S. factories - First Solar, Heliene, Suniva, Silfab, Crossroads Solar, Mission Solar and Auxin Solar - according to the petition documents. Georgia U.S. Senators Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, both Democrats, have also advocated for elimination of the bifacial exemption.
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https://finance.yahoo.com/news/exclusive-us-plans-restore-tariffs-174552592.html