The U.S. Treasury Department issued a clarification on Friday (May 12) that developers of domestic solar projects can apply for new IRA subsidies for projects even if the modules used in the projects contain photovoltaic cells made in China.

This also means that domestic photovoltaic manufacturers in the United States can import photovoltaic cells from China and assemble them locally into photovoltaic projects, and can obtain a 30% tax credit for IRA taxes and an additional 10% for local manufacturing projects. project cost subsidy.

This is of great benefit to the domestic photovoltaic manufacturing industry in the United States and the export of photovoltaic cells in China.

However, the new rules point out that if US solar developers want to receive the full tax credits provided by the IRA, the photovoltaic projects need to include a certain proportion of products developed, produced or manufactured in the United States.

Guidance proposed by the Treasury Department states that standard solar projects will include products such as modules, trackers and inverters, and that in order to meet this requirement, 40% of the components in these products must be made in the United States.

In other words, as current rules allow, U.S. solar producers can continue to import solar cells while trying to meet the 40% domestic content threshold on other components. According to SEIA, this will "spark a wave of investment in clean energy equipment and components made in the United States."

But the current problem is that solar cells account for about 30% of the product cost of solar installations, and there is currently no supply of polycrystalline silicon cells in the United States, and polycrystalline silicon-based cells are the dominant technology in the market. In this regard, the American Solar Energy Industry Association has proposed that components assembled in the United States should be eligible for subsidies, regardless of the origin of their batteries.