Trump Excludes Photovoltaic Manufacturing from the Defense Production Act

Recently, US President Donald Trump issued an executive order revoking the Biden administration's decision to include solar photovoltaic modules and their manufacturing under the 1950 Defense Production Act (DPA).

In June 2022, then President Joe Biden issued a presidential ruling authorizing the US Department of Energy (DOE) to use DPA to accelerate the production of five key energy technologies domestically, including solar energy, grid transformers and components, heat pumps, insulation materials, electrolytic cells, fuel cells, and platinum group metals. The Biden administration's move aims to strengthen the manufacturing capacity of clean energy technology in the United States, reduce dependence on clean energy imports, and meet the growing global market demand. At that time, the US Department of Energy stated that while using DPA to support clean energy manufacturing, it would encourage federal funding beneficiaries to adopt strict labor standards, including project labor agreements and community welfare agreements with local employment terms.

Trump's withdrawal of support policies for photovoltaic manufacturing this time is part of his administration's overturning of 78 presidential orders and memoranda from the Biden administration, and there may be more related adjustments in the future. Trump stated in the executive order, "I have decided to take the following additional revocation measures to advance the United States' policy of restoring rational governance of the federal government and unleashing the potential of American citizens

In addition, the new government has also revoked several clean energy funding support policies, which may have a significant impact on the US photovoltaic industry. On his first day in office, Trump signed the "Release American Energy" executive order, freezing the disbursement of funds under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which had previously been a key factor driving investment in the US photovoltaic industry.

At present, the nominal annual production capacity of photovoltaic modules in the United States has exceeded 50GW, but there is still a gap in upstream core modules. Due to the capital intensive nature of these links, industry expansion still requires financial and policy support. The latest decision of the Trump administration may further affect the development prospects of the US photovoltaic manufacturing industry.