Trump Sets 15% Tariff and a 38-Cent Price Floor on Imported Solar Panels
- FERC & Federal Policy & Markets Regulatory
Marin Holt
- 0
- 8 minutes read
- 15% ad valorem tariff on imported polysilicon derivatives: ingots, wafers, cells and panels, regardless of country of origin
- Minimum import prices: $21/kg polysilicon, $100/kg ingots and wafers, $0.22/W cells, $0.38/W panels
- Effective 12:01 a.m. Eastern, December 4, 2026, which is 120 days after the August 6 proclamation
- The 38 cents/W panel floor sits above the 31 cents/W average price of U.S.-assembled panels and well above India at 14 cents/W
- Fixed-price contracts signed before August 6, 2026 are exempt. Commerce may approve onshoring plans for duty-free imports during construction
President Trump signed a proclamation on August 6. It puts a 15% tariff and a minimum import price on solar panels, cells, wafers and ingots made from polysilicon. The module floor is 38 cents per watt. Both measures take effect at 12:01 a.m. Eastern on December 4, 2026. The action closes the Section 232 investigation that the Commerce Department opened in July 2025.
The 15% duty applies to every covered import regardless of where it was made. Raw polysilicon escapes the duty, but not the price floor. Commerce set four floors: $21 per kilogram for polysilicon, $100 per kilogram for ingots and wafers, 22 cents per watt for cells, and 38 cents per watt for finished panels.
Before and after
The floors sit well above what buyers pay today. Recent estimates put India-assembled panels at 14 cents per watt and Southeast Asian panels at 27 cents. U.S.-assembled panels average 31 cents. The 38-cent floor therefore prices an imported panel above the domestic product it competes with, not level with it.
The cell floor deserves separate attention. At 22 cents per watt for cells and 38 cents for modules, an importer has 16 cents per watt of headroom. Domestic assemblers who buy foreign cells work inside that spread. The United States installs about 50 GW of solar a year. Domestic plants can assemble close to 70 GW of panels. Assembly is not the bottleneck. Cells are.
Enforcement reality
The floor is not a border tax. An importer must document that the first arm’s-length sale in the United States happens at or above the applicable price. That pushes the compliance burden downstream, into resale contracts that customs officers do not normally see. Goods moving under fixed-price contracts signed before August 6 are exempt.
The proclamation also lets Commerce approve onshoring plans. A company that commits to build, expand or refurbish a U.S. polysilicon, ingot, wafer or cell plant can import equipment and covered products duty free while it builds. Commerce has not published the approval criteria, the review timeline, or who decides.
Why It Matters
Developers with panels arriving after December 3 should price the 15% duty and the floor into current models now. The 120-day window is short for a December delivery. The contract exemption rewards anyone who locked fixed terms before August 6. Buyers still negotiating should ask suppliers which side of that date their paper falls on.
The administration framed the action around semiconductors rather than solar. Polysilicon feeds both, and the proclamation argues that no domestic chip supply is secure without domestic polysilicon. Solar buys the vast majority of the material, so solar carries the cost of a policy written for defense supply chains.
Domestic manufacturers welcomed the decision. T1 Energy called it a win for American manufacturing. The company assembles panels in Texas and is spending $510 million on a Texas cell plant. That plant is due to produce in early 2027. Commerce received roughly 50 public comments during the investigation, most from solar companies and trade groups.
Critical Perspective
The national security case rests on semiconductors, but solar buys the overwhelming majority of the world’s polysilicon. The proclamation protects chip supply by taxing the industry whose volume made the material cheap in the first place. If defense supply is the worry, roughly 50 GW a year of solar demand is an odd place to send the bill.
Read the 38 cents per watt floor against the 31 cents that U.S.-assembled panels already average. A floor above the domestic price does not level a field. It puts a roof over domestic pricing too, because no import can undercut 38 cents and no domestic seller now has to. The 50 GW installed each year absorbs that as higher project cost.
Enforcement is the open question. Customs sees the import. The floor governs the first arm’s-length sale inside the United States, which happens later and in private paper. Commerce has not published how it audits those resale prices, who may complain, or what the penalty is. A floor that nobody outside the parties can verify is a floor that gets negotiated around.
Sources
- Adjusting Imports of Polysilicon and its Derivatives into the United States
- Sec. 232 polysilicon results: The price of all imported solar panels is going up
- US introduces 15% tariffs and minimum prices for polysilicon imports under Section 232
- Trump signs Section 232 tariffs, placing minimum import price on polysilicon imports
