Mike Summers was anxious to install solar at his home in Ohio for years, and after he finally replaced his aging of his roof this year, his solar contractor came into action. Its system, including 19 panels and an support battery, increased this week, and Summers is considered lucky.
“I’m glad I did when I did,” said Summers, a former mayor of his Lakewood city west of Cleveland. You will get around $ 10,000 in fiscal credits in its investment of $ 39,000, but almost so important is that the entire equipment was easily available.
Other hopeful solar buyers may have a much more difficult time in the coming months. President Donald Trump’s Growing the commercial war with China Threat to push a massive source of solar panels and pieces, and experts say that the cost of projects will certainly increase as China represents.
Porcelain represented at least 80% Of the components of the solar panels as recently as 2022, according to a report by the International Energy Agency, especially Polysilicon, Glass and Solar cells. Solar energy also requires an increase in critical mineral supplies, of which China is a key player worldwide and electronics.
In the United States, private industry has poured $ 18.2 billion in the development of a national supply chain in recent years, according to ATLAS Public Policythat includes everything, from bullion and wafers that form panels to electrical and structural components to the assembly of the panels themselves. Most of that came from the inflation reduction law approved during the administration of former President Joe Biden, with massive funds for clean energy investment.
But that will not come to replace what China produces.
“Everyone really is losing when they think about it, because the systems are costing customers more and also makes it more difficult, somehow, for us to do business,” said Brian Dipolo, assistant manager of Sales of the solar installer based in Cleveland, Yellowlite, who is doing the Summers project. ‘ Dipolo said some clients are waiting for plans until there is more clarity. The company was still supplying in solar panels, made in North America, a month ago to stay competitive in the coming months.
“We are seeing international and national manufacturers of teams that increase their costs to prepare for tariffs,” Dipolo said. “You think national manufacturers would keep their prices low because they are not beaten by tariffs, but they are seeing this additional demand for their team.”
It is supply and demand, said Martin Pochtaruk, CEO of Heliene, which focuses on large -scale solar projects. He described the price of a necessary glass component in February due to a tariff walk. Suppliers in other countries coincided with the highest price, which means higher costs regardless of the source.
Alexis Abramson, dean of the Climate School of Columbia University, said there is no doubt that residential solar energy will be more expensive. That will reduce solar adoption, and small and medium installers will sink, he said.
It is “extremely difficult to offer the certainty of the prices of current and future customers” when the commercial policy is changing so much, said James Hasselbeck, director of Operations of the Solar Company Review Energy based in New England.
Solar energy has become significantly more affordable in recent years as the technology scale, improves and becomes cheaper to install. The systems can still cost thousands of dollars on average, but the average cost for a residential system is more than more than 70% since 2010according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. American consumers have also had a credits that further reduce the cost, although their future is uncertain under the Trump administration.
The costs of the commercial project and public services scale have also decreased dramatically.
That feeds on rapid growth In the United States in the last two decades. In 2024, the commercial segment grew by 8% and the profit grew by 33%, according to an annual report of the Wood Mackenzie association and consulting. The residential segment fell 32% last year, but Experts attribute that to High rates of interest and electoral uncertainty, and said they had expected continuous growth before tariffs arrived.
Solar energy is an important source of clean energy because it does not emit the harmful greenhouse gases than coal, natural gas and oil. Those are massive taxpayers to the warm -up of the earth.
Trump imposed tariffs during his first mandate in imported solar cells and modules in 2018 in the hope of reducing China’s dependence.
But China subsidized its own national overproduction and some manufacturers from the United States accused him of essentially mute operations to Four Southeast Asian countries I had a Temporary exemption of rates.
Abigail Ross Hopper, president and CEO of the Association of Solar Energy Industries, said that the United States is “quickly recovering the control of the supply chain from China to build the strongest solar manufacturing base in the world.” The Group reported that in 2024, the manufacturing capacity of modules, largely concentrated in the south, became 190%and said that the manufacture of cells “was first reformulated in five years” with the reinstruction production of the Suniva company.
But Hopper also said that sudden changes in policies run the risk of cooling the investment and deceleration of job creation, especially for manufacturers. The group said during the first Trump administration that the tariffs issued then They were harmful to the industry.
Ultimately, Abramson said that “he would encourage anyone who has really been thinking about putting solar energy on his roof so that he really seeks to lock that sooner rather than later.”
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Read more than AP climate coverage in http://www.apnews.com/climate-and-environment.
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Alexa St. John is a climate reporter of Associated Press. Follow her in X: @alexa_stjohn. Communicate with her at ast.john@ap.org.
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Associated Press’s climatic and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards To work with philanthropies, a list of followers and coverage areas financed in Ap.org.
