As President Biden prepares to pause tariffs on Chinese solar product, China has a "chokehold" on the solar energy supply chain.
The Biden administration plans to boost domestic solar manufacturing to three times the output from when he first came into office, the Wall Street Journal reported June 5. Biden announced June 6, he was invoking the Defense Production Act to increase the domestic production of solar materials.
"China's chokehold on the solar supply chain threatens the energy security of any country reliant on solar," Brian Gitt said in a post on Twitter. "China makes 99% of the solar-grade polysilicon and wafers used to make solar panels."
Commerce Newswire previously reported on the Auxin Solar complaint, which alleges the Chinese have been funneling solar materials through Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia to dodge U.S. tariffs first implemented under former President Barack Obama.
In the meantime, the U.S. is "temporarily facilitating U.S. solar deployers’ ability to source solar modules and cells from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam by providing that those components can be imported free of certain duties for 24 months in order to ensure the U.S. has access to a sufficient supply of solar modules to meet electricity generation needs while domestic manufacturing scales up," the White House announcement said.
Imports from the four listed countries are currently under investigation by the Department of Commerce for aiding Chinese tariff dodging, Commerce Newswire reported.
