Home-passed federal tax laws threatens to undercut the photo voltaic business, which is the first supply of recent U.S. electrical energy era and is delivering a historic increase in home manufacturing
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. photo voltaic business added 8.6 gigawatts (GW) of recent photo voltaic module manufacturing capability in Q1 2025, marking the third-largest quarter for brand spanking new manufacturing capability on report.
The manufacturing surge comes from eight new or expanded factories in Texas, Ohio, and Arizona, in response to the U.S. Photo voltaic Market Perception Q2 2025 report launched yesterday by the Photo voltaic Vitality Industries Affiliation (SEIA) and Wooden Mackenzie. Along with rising module capability, U.S. photo voltaic cell manufacturing capability doubled in Q1 to 2 GW with the opening of a brand new manufacturing unit in South Carolina.
The report finds that the U.S. photo voltaic business put in 10.8 GW of recent electrical energy producing capability in Q1, and photo voltaic and storage account for 82% of all new producing capability added to the grid.
Whereas photo voltaic manufacturing and deployment proceed to steer American vitality independence and development, new tariffs and potential adjustments to federal tax credit pose important enterprise uncertainty for the business and threaten its long-term development.
“Photo voltaic and storage proceed to dominate America’s vitality financial system, including extra new capability to the grid than any know-how utilizing more and more American-made tools,” mentioned SEIA president and CEO Abigail Ross Hopper. “However our success is in danger. If Congress fails to repair the laws handed by the Home – which might render the vitality tax incentives unusable – lawmakers will set off a harmful vitality scarcity that can increase our electrical payments and cease America’s manufacturing increase in its tracks. The Senate nonetheless has time to get this proper and safe President Trump’s imaginative and prescient for American vitality dominance.”
Economic system-wide tariff uncertainty, new anti-dumping and countervailing duties (AD/CVD) on cells and modules from Southeast Asia, and potential shifts in federal vitality incentives might considerably hinder U.S. photo voltaic deployment and manufacturing, risking vitality shortages, job losses, and manufacturing unit closures.
“The ten.8 GW of photo voltaic capability put in in Q1 2025 represents a good portion of recent U.S. electrical energy era, highlighting photo voltaic’s rising dominance within the vitality combine,” mentioned Zoë Gaston, Principal Analyst at Wooden Mackenzie. “Nonetheless, our evaluation means that the U.S. photo voltaic market has but to succeed in its full potential. The proposed adjustments to federal tax incentives, together with ongoing tariff considerations, might considerably affect this development trajectory and doubtlessly result in vitality provide challenges. It’s essential to contemplate the important position of photo voltaic in America’s vitality panorama” added Gaston.
SEIA and Wooden Mackenzie’s forecast for the business, which accounts for tariffs levied in Q2 however not potential roll backs of the federal tax credit, initiatives declining deployment nationwide, which might end in misplaced funding in native communities, vitality shortfalls, and elevated vitality payments for Individuals. Whereas the group photo voltaic forecast remained flat, all different segments noticed their five-year outlook decline in comparison with final quarter, together with a 14% discount in forecasted residential photo voltaic deployment, and a 6% discount in forecasted utility-scale deployment. Rollbacks of the vitality tax credit, on high of not too long ago levied tariffs, would unequivocally worsen the harm to the photo voltaic business.
A separate latest evaluation carried out by SEIA of the impacts of the Home-passed reconciliation laws initiatives a devastating vitality scarcity for the U.S. financial system ought to the invoice turn into regulation. If lawmakers fail to alter course, 330,000 present and future Individuals jobs could possibly be misplaced, 331 factories might shut or by no means come on-line, and $286 billion in native investments might disappear. The invoice might additionally set off huge vitality inflation, elevating shoppers’ electrical energy prices by $51 billion nationwide.
If Congress cuts vitality tax incentives, SEIA’s evaluation initiatives that vitality manufacturing will fall 173 TWh and america will be unable to satisfy demand or compete with China within the international race to energy AI.
In keeping with the Photo voltaic Market Perception report, Texas continued to dominate, including extra photo voltaic capability than any state in Q1 2025, with the state of Florida surging forward of California for second place. Of the highest ten states with essentially the most photo voltaic installations within the first quarter, eight have been received by President Donald Trump within the 2024 election: Texas, Florida, Ohio, Indiana, Arizona, Wisconsin, Idaho, and Pennsylvania.
If Congress fails to switch the adjustments to vitality tax incentives handed by the Home, jobs, investments, and factories in Trump nation will likely be hit the toughest.
Be taught extra at seia.org/smi.
Media Contact:
Rachel Skaar, Photo voltaic Vitality Industries Affiliation (SEIA), rskaar@seia.org | 406-461-9694
About SEIA®:
The Photo voltaic Vitality Industries Affiliation® (SEIA) is main the transformation to a clear vitality financial system. SEIA works with its 1,200 member corporations and different strategic companions to battle for insurance policies that create jobs in each group and form truthful market guidelines that promote competitors and the expansion of dependable, low-cost solar energy. Based in 1974, SEIA is the nationwide commerce affiliation for the photo voltaic and photo voltaic + storage industries, constructing a complete imaginative and prescient for the Photo voltaic+ Decade by analysis, training and advocacy. Go to SEIA on-line at www.seia.org and comply with @SEIA on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
Press launch from SEIA.
Join CleanTechnica’s Weekly Substack for Zach and Scott’s in-depth analyses and excessive degree summaries, join our each day publication, and comply with us on Google Information!
Whether or not you may have solar energy or not, please full our newest solar energy survey.
Have a tip for CleanTechnica? Wish to promote? Wish to recommend a visitor for our CleanTech Speak podcast? Contact us right here.
Join our each day publication for 15 new cleantech tales a day. Or join our weekly one on high tales of the week if each day is just too frequent.
CleanTechnica makes use of affiliate hyperlinks. See our coverage right here.
CleanTechnica’s Remark Coverage
