Commerce and provide chain limitations proceed to sluggish the progress of solar energy enlargement within the US, regardless of the Inflation Discount Act (IRA) designed to spice up clear power capability rollouts, a quarterly report by Photo voltaic Power Industries Affiliation (SEIA) and Wooden Mackenzie present on Tuesday.
America added 4.6 gigawatts (GW) of recent photo voltaic capability within the third quarter of this yr, down 17% in comparison with the identical interval in 2021, the US Photo voltaic Market Perception Q4 2022 report discovered.
Because of provide constraints, the utility-scale, industrial, and neighborhood photo voltaic markets all skilled sequential declines within the third quarter. The residential photo voltaic section was much less instantly affected by the prevailing commerce points and noticed 1.57 GW of recent installations, a rise of 43% in comparison with the third quarter of 2021, in accordance with the report .
“America’s clear power economic system is being hindered by its personal commerce actions,” SEIA president and CEO Abigail Ross Hopper mentioned in a press release.
“The photo voltaic and storage trade is working decisively to construct an moral provide chain, however pointless provide bottlenecks and commerce restrictions forestall producers from getting the tools they should spend money on facility within the U.S. After the Inflation Discount Act (IRA), we won’t afford to waste time tinkering with commerce legal guidelines because the local weather risk looms.
Provide chain constraints have intensified this yr as energy plant builders sought to get their arms on photo voltaic panels because of a brand new US legislation banning the import of merchandise made with pressured labor in China.
The US enacted in June the Uyghur Compelled Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), which bans merchandise made utilizing pressured labor in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Area. The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Area (XUAR) is residence to half of the world’s polysilicon, which is utilized in photo voltaic panels made in lots of different nations.
Below the Act, corporations should present a monitor document within the provide chain of photo voltaic panels and different tools to make sure that they haven’t been produced utilizing pressured labor.
“It has confirmed tougher and time-consuming to supply the right proof to adjust to the UFLPA, additional delaying the supply of apparatus to the US,” mentioned Michelle Davis, principal analyst and lead creator of the report at US Photo voltaic Market Perception Q4 2022.
By Michael Kern for Oilprice.com
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