The U.S. photo voltaic trade is warning of a giant slowdown in undertaking installations this 12 months as international provide chain disruptions and the specter of new U.S. tariffs on panel imports from Southeast Asia hit house.
U.S. energy firm Southern Co. on Thursday stated practically a gigawatt of its deliberate photo voltaic vitality initiatives could be delayed by a 12 months, the most recent in a string of warnings from corporations and trade representatives citing the 2 points.
A slowdown within the photo voltaic trade’s progress might pose a menace to the Biden administration’s local weather objectives, which embrace decarbonizing the U.S. energy sector by 2035 by means of the widespread adoption of wind and photo voltaic vitality.
“I share your deep concern about this,” Power Secretary Jennifer Granholm stated on Thursday whereas testifying at a congressional price range listening to. She was responding to a lawmaker’s query about the specter of new tariffs on photo voltaic installations.
On a convention name to debate the corporate’s quarterly outcomes, Southern Chief Monetary Officer Daniel Tucker stated the corporate’s Georgia Energy utility had obtained regulatory approval final week to delay a number of photo voltaic initiatives by a 12 months.
The delay to November 2024 applies to 5 deliberate photo voltaic services in Georgia that add as much as 970 megawatts of capability, in line with a regulatory doc. That’s sufficient capability to energy 184,000 properties.
The initiatives are being developed by Nextera, EDF Renewables and Consolidated Edison, in line with regulatory paperwork. Georgia Energy has 30-year contracts to purchase the ability from these services. Southern has dedicated to lowering its carbon emissions to “internet zero” by 2050, partially by procuring giant quantities of photo voltaic vitality.
Final week, NextEra stated it anticipated about 2.1 to 2.8 GW of its photo voltaic and vitality storage initiatives to shift from 2022 to 2023. The corporate largely blamed the U.S. Commerce Division’s commerce probe into alleged tariff dodging by Chinese language panel makers, launched final month, that might lead to tariffs on photo voltaic panels from 4 Southeast Asian nations that account for about 80% of imports into america.
The investigation, which won’t be completed for months, has introduced uncertainty to the photo voltaic market as a result of the tariffs may very well be applied retroactively.
Earlier this week, the most important photo voltaic commerce group stated it was slicing its photo voltaic set up forecasts for this 12 months and subsequent by 46% because of the menace of latest tariffs. Greater than 315 initiatives are being canceled or delayed, in line with the Photo voltaic Power Industries Affiliation.
The tariff issues have added to an array of complications for U.S. photo voltaic builders that embrace surging prices for elements, labor and freight as the worldwide financial system recovers from the coronavirus pandemic.
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