Greater than 240 photo voltaic and storage corporations have known as on the US’s secretary of commerce to reject a petition for brand spanking new anti-circumvention tariffs on photo voltaic merchandise, warning that delay within the investigation would curb deployment.
In a letter sent to Secretary Gina Raimondo yesterday, the coalition known as for a detrimental preliminary dedication to be made within the Division of Commerce’s investigation into whether or not photo voltaic cells and modules assembled in 4 Southeast Asian international locations are circumventing US anti-dumping and countervailing responsibility (AD/CVD) orders on cells and modules from China. The deadline for its preliminary dedication is on 1 December.
An affirmative dedication on this investigation, or any additional delay, “would create new uncertainty for American photo voltaic companies, stifle deployment, and restrict American photo voltaic jobs. It could additionally undercut efforts to deal with the existential risk of local weather change,” the letter reads.
With the ink barely dry on the US’s Inflation Discount Act (IRA), “to reverse course and place extra prices on US photo voltaic corporations could be solely counterproductive to the bold decarbonisation targets established by this administration”, the coalition stated within the letter.
The investigation stems from a petition made earlier this yr from California-based module producer Auxin Photo voltaic, which alleges that module assemblers in Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia use affiliated Chinese language enter suppliers and a completely built-in Chinese language provide chain to avoid the AD/CVD orders.
With the specter of potential retroactive tariffs because of the probe, imports of photo voltaic cells and modules from the Southeast Asian international locations slowed within the months following Commerce’s transfer to proceed with the investigation, resulting in US photo voltaic deployment forecasts being slashed.
The business has been supplied with a reprieve as President Joe Biden declared a two-year freeze on new tariffs on photo voltaic imports from Southeast Asia, permitting photo voltaic deployment to be kick-started.
“President Biden took an important near-term step over the summer time to release a gridlocked photo voltaic provide chain, however corporations gained’t have the ability to capitalise on the administration’s landmark local weather coverage if this baseless case isn’t thrown out,” stated Abigail Ross Hopper, CEO of commerce physique the Photo voltaic Vitality Industries Affiliation (SEIA).
SEIA stated that manufacturing provisions within the IRA put the affiliation’s aim of 50GW of US photo voltaic manufacturing by 2030 “inside attain, however Commerce might crush demand with unjustified tariffs”.
Commerce introduced earlier this week that it requires extra time for its investigation because it prolonged the deadline for issuing each preliminary and ultimate determinations by three days, till 1 December 2022 and 1 Might 2023, respectively.
