US tariff move on PV products seen as a setback for global industry, green push

The additional tariffs imposed by the United States on photovoltaic products from Southeast Asia form a "myopic" and "self-defeating policy "that will significantly inflate costs for US consumers and run counter to global trends, said Chinese solar companies and industry experts.

"The recent US imposition of additional tariffs on Southeast Asian photovoltaic products is essentially a myopic move that runs counter to the trend of globalization," said Zhu Gongshan, chairman of GCL Group, in an exclusive interview with China Daily.

"The industry's resilience lies in its innovation capacity and global reach. While tariffs impose costs, they won't derail the larger trend, as technological advancement and global deployment will ensure continued growth," he said.

Zhu said these additional tariffs are not only a setback for the global clean energy transition, obstructing the affordable and rapid deployment of renewables worldwide, but also detrimental to the US solar market itself, artificially inflating costs for developers and consumers while failing to adequately stimulate domestic production.

"Such protectionist measures disrupt well-established global supply chains and go against the necessary integration required to scale up solar energy globally," he said.

The US Commerce Department has announced plans to impose tariffs of up to 3,521 percent on imports of solar panels from four Southeast Asian nations, intensifying headwinds already threatening the country's renewable power development.

It comes after an investigation a year ago when several major solar equipment producers sought to protect their US operations, accusing Chinese solar panel makers with factories in Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam of shipping panels at a lower price.

Under the new tariffs, leading Chinese solar technology companies including Jinko Solar, Trina Solar and JA Solar are to face duties as high as 40.3 percent to 375.19 percent on their products and operations related to the affected markets.

According to Chen Fei, analyst of solar supply chain research at global consultancy Rystad Energy, leading Chinese solar manufacturers have already made plans to set up manufacturing facilities in regions outside of the four Southeast Asian countries, and could commission production as early as this year.

Rystad Energy said that planned US module manufacturing capacity is projected to surge, assuming no significant delays or cancellations. However, a gap between crystalline silicon cells and module production capacity will persist.

In the short term, US manufacturers will still need to source external cells to meet domestic demand, said Chen.

According to Zhu from GCL Group, around 80 percent of the $12.9 billion photovoltaic exports from the four Southeast Asian countries to the US involve Chinese technology and capital, while domestic US production can only meet 31.6 percent of market demand.

"This self-defeating policy has driven US module prices to triple the global average, inflating local solar project costs by 27 percent to 30 percent," he said.

Zhu said China's solar products, fueled by continuous technological breakthroughs, have become increasingly affordable and efficient, making clean energy accessible to a wider global market and critically accelerating the worldwide energy transition.

China's module exports rose 13 percent year-on-year in 2024 to 235.93 gigawatts, while its granular silicon technology, boasting over 30 percent cost reduction, achieved 45 percent global shipment growth with market penetration exceeding 25 percent, he said.

"Notably, perovskite tandem modules have broken the 31 percent efficiency barrier at half the cost of crystalline silicon cells and are now being deployed in demonstration projects in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, directly enabling and speeding up the global energy transition."

Confronting unilateral protectionism, the solar industry has advocated multilateral cooperation rather than unilateral imposition of tariffs.

"Amid an irreversible global energy transition, China commands over 80 percent of polysilicon, wafers, cells and module capacities, while the US excels in system integration and smart grids. With annual solar installations growing 10 percent globally, our collaboration could accelerate carbon neutrality."

Zhu believes that while these tariffs create short-term disruptions, their long-term impact will be limited because the true drivers of the solar industry's future are technological innovation and globalized deployment, which continue unabated.

"While the US tariffs may be but a grain of sand in globalization's tide, technological breakthroughs and win-win cooperation remain the sunlight illuminating our future," he said.

Wang Zixian and Yuan Ziming contributed to this story.