The Trump administration will impose tariffs and set minimum prices on imported polysilicon, solar panels and their components, aiming to reshore clean-energy supply chains and reduce Chinese market control of an element critical for solar systems and semiconductors.
President Trump signed a proclamation Thursday that will set a 15% tariff on imports of the solar-energy materials and equipment. Companies that commit to building manufacturing facilities in the U.S. can apply for exemptions from the levies, which take effect on Dec. 4, 2026, according to the proclamation.
Cylinders of polysilicon called ingots are sliced to form wafers, which are combined to create solar cells and then arranged together to form modules that are placed on racks to generate electricity.
"This will bring the supply chain here," Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said at the signing ceremony for the tariff proclamation. "We're setting prices so that the Chinese can't dump [cheap products] anymore, and we're setting tariffs to say build it here," he added.
Additionally, the action will set minimum prices for solar components, designed to stop the importation of products cheaper than the price floor.
The tariff proclamation requires companies to certify that the first sale of any imported polysilicon and solar components to another company wouldn't fall below the minimum import price. That is meant to ensure that companies don't declare imports at one price but then turn around and sell them at a lower one, which could undercut the effectiveness of the tariffs.
The levies will be administered by the Commerce Department under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. The law allows the president to impose tariffs on products he deems critical to national security, such as polysilicon that ends up in semiconductors used by military contractors. Semiconductors themselves won't be tariffed under the polysilicon tariffs, as the Commerce Department already has issued a tariff action on certain semiconductors under a separate Section 232 probe.
The Commerce Department last July opened an investigation into imports of polysilicon and associated products to determine whether they threatened national security and what level of tariffs could reduce those vulnerabilities.
The minimum import prices will be $21 per kilogram of polysilicon, $100 per kilogram of solar ingots and wafers, 22 cents per watt of solar cells, and 38 cents per watt of solar modules. A kilogram is equal to about 2.2 pounds
Domestic solar and chip manufacturers have argued for tariffs to protect their U.S. factories from a flood of cheap Chinese products, often funneled through third countries to avoid tariffs on China. Some of those U.S. companies applauded the new tariffs.
"This is a decisive win for advanced American manufacturing and investment in domestic energy supply chains," said Dan Barcelo, Chairman & CEO of T1 Energy, which is building a new solar panel factory in Texas. "But most important, it helps companies like ours that are creating thousands of high-quality American jobs."
Comments