Biden to use Defense Production Act to build more solar panel parts at home

The DPA will cover the manufacture of photovoltaic modules, which are a central component of solar panels, as well as heat pumps and equipment for building electrolyzers and fuel cells.

Biden will also invoke emergency authority to create a two-year "bridge" preventing the imposition of new tariffs to ensure solar developers have access to solar product imports while manufacturing grows, the White House said.

The actions try to serve the interests of both solar developers and manufacturers, which have been competing over the Commerce Department's anti-circumvention investigation into solar imports from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam.

The Commerce Department opened its investigation on April 1 at the request of California-based solar module manufacturer Auxin Solar to consider whether Chinese companies are circumventing tariffs on solar products by sending them through third countries.

Solar developers and a number of Democratic lawmakers oppose the investigation and say it's leading to higher prices, canceled supply agreements, and delayed projects due to the prospect of new tariffs.

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo has said the department is required by law to carry out the inquiry in response to requests that it speed up the investigation or announce preliminary conclusions to give the market certainty about the prospect of tariffs.