By Senad Karaahmetovic
U.S. President Joe Biden plans to take steps to bolster the U.S. solar industry in a bid to accelerate clean energy projects halted by trade disputes. The plan also includes supporting local manufacturing to minimize the country’s reliance on foreign suppliers.
Biden reportedly intends to offer support for local-made solar panels using the Defense Production Act. Moreover, he is also expected to declare a 2-year halt in new solar tariffs to allow local project developers to use international equipment as local manufacturing gains momentum.
Biden hopes to help combat climate change through the new plan and boost local solar manufacturing that has been affected by cheap imports. The move comes after Biden’s administration representatives held extended talks over potential steps to bolster clean energy projects that have been constrained by a Commerce Department trade investigation.
Additionally, the White House also plans to leverage the federal government’s purchasing power to back local clean energy manufacturers.
Truist analyst Bronson Fleig said that “any action resulting in prospects for increased visibility to near-term solar panel supply is very constructive for a broader solar equities group under pressure.”
“We largely view a halt to any new solar tariffs as a means for the Admin to “circumvent” its own DOC’s investigation to determine if manufacturers in four Southeast Asian countries (CMTV) are circumventing AD/CVD tariffs. Should the U.S. solar industry be able to return to a more normalized supply environment without threat of new or retroactive tariffs, we see this as lifting a meaningful overhang for the broader space, more specifically those companies levered to large-scale, utility solar,” Fleig told clients in a note.
The analyst sees Shoals Technologies (NASDAQ:SHLS) and Array Technologies (NASDAQ:ARRY) as two companies that will benefit the most from a pause in new tariffs. Elsewhere, Sunrun (NASDAQ:RUN), Sunnova (NYSE:NOVA), and SunPower (NASDAQ:SPWR) will see some “overhang removed.”