The geopolitical leverage is still in place. So far, China still has the bulk of silicon foundries in the World and (right now) this political unrest and China’s party proper regional shutdown/isolation of manufacturing centers is still affecting the supply chain of poly silicon around the World. When one affects the supply chain, it constricts projects sitting in queues, keeps installers and support groups out of work and has a ‘destructive’ effect in employment and construction in the alternative energy field around the World. (IF) the IRA does spark manufacturing of supply chain materials in the U.S. for solar PV factories in the U.S., it will be at (least) a couple of years before the infrastructure is constructed and online supplying American Made poly silicon and solar cell services for solar PV crystalline cell panel manufacturers in the U.S.. H.R. 1155 the Unghyrs forced labor act also plays a part in the amount of poly silicon one can get from China as China has poly silicon foundries in this region also.

I’ve said it before, the only (real) solar PV panel manufacturer in the U.S. that has had success for 22 years is First Solar. Of all these ‘other’ solar PV panel manufacturers in the U.S. even the company Auxin that filed this AD/CVD complaint are not low carbon manufacturers of solar PV panels, are still in the ‘carbon rich’ manufacturing line. First Solar has at least three less steps for their panels, do not require poly silicon and a foundry to create the pulls, cut into wafers and doped into cells to assemble into solar PV panels. First Solar has had a cradle to cradle recycling plan in place since 2003, First Solar has announced the company will power their manufacturing lines using solar PV derived energy in all of its plants World wide by 2028. Now First Solar needs to review their manufacturing line panel sizes. First Solar could produce a 20 (68 inches x 42 inches) square foot CdTe panel of around 340 watts output, this would be a great addition to the retail residential solar PV industry.