White House official confirms: cargo clearance has increased
According to foreign media, local time on March 7 (Monday), the U.S. President Joe Biden's White House Senior Adviser on Clean Energy John Podesta at Cambridge Energy Week (CERAWeek) confirmed during the International Energy Conference that Chinese solar panels are re-entering the United States through customs.
Podesta said: "With clearer guidelines, we are seeing more goods passing through (customs)." But he did not elaborate further on the number.
The news was enough to relieve major Chinese suppliers such as Trina Solar and Jingke Energy. After a long delay, their products finally have smooth access to the U.S. market.
The news also means that a large number of Chinese solar panels previously trapped at the U.S. customs border or waiting to be shipped overseas have been cleared in the U.S. smoothly and are expected to help ease the development of solar projects in the United States.
According to news reports cited by foreign media last year, because of the US's so-called law banning forced labor, since June last year, there has been a backlog of more than 1,000 solar components coming to China in US ports, worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
In response, then-Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said in November, it has long been proven that the so-called "forced labor" in Xinjiang is a century-old lie concocted by a few anti-Chinese elements, On the basis of lies, the US has formulated and implemented the Law of Transboundary Evils, seriously interfere with normal PV products trade between China and the United States, Violating market rules and international economic and trade rules, undermining global PV supply chain stability and global efforts to combat climate change, will ultimately also harm their interests.
Zhao Lijian pointed out that the US should immediately stop the unreasonable repression of Chinese photovoltaic enterprises, and release the relevant solar components as soon as possible. China will continue to firmly safeguard the legitimate and legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises.
At the end of last year, photovoltaic cells were cleared in the United States
Over the past four months, more than 900 megawatts of solar panels have been cleared in the United States, Trina's U.S. spokesman Melissa Cavanagh told the media. This is enough to power more than 150,000 households.
Another Chinese producer of photovoltaic cells, Jingke Energy, has also been released from detention, according to people familiar with the matter.
Earlier, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said it seized more than 1,000 shipments of solar equipment as of October last year. According to industry sources, these products are mainly produced by Trina Solar, Crystal Energy, and Longi Green Energy. These companies supply almost a third of all U.S. solar panels.
In addition, according to the relevant news, in early December last year, the Jingko PV module has been released by the United States Customs.
The U.S. Customs Department recently said that as of last month, 374 electronic products had been released, accounting for more than a quarter of the 1,433 electronic products it detained. But they did not specify how many of them belonged to solar energy products.
The slowdown in imports affects US project construction
According to The Wall Street Journal, the United States produces virtually no components needed for solar energy, while China, which can produce solar modules at a lower cost, controls more than 80% of the supply chain and dominates the production of solar panels and other vital equipment.
Restrictions on imports of Chinese solar panels have forced a freeze on U.S. solar projects, a risk to the Biden administration's clean energy and climate change goals, Reuters said. And China's product clearance helps ease delays in the development of related projects in the United States.
According to the American Clean Energy Association (ACP), solar installations in the United States slowed by 23% in the third quarter of 2022 due to a lack of access to panels, and nearly 23 gigawatts of solar energy projects were delayed.
Meanwhile, in the fourth quarter of 2022, the average price of solar power purchase agreements (PPAs) rose 33% from a year ago.
A slowdown in imports also poses risks to U.S. businesses. American solar developer Lightsource bp Chief Executive Officer of the Americas Smith Kevin Smith says the development of a 100-megawatt solar project in the United States has increased from 18-24 months to 36-48 months from green space development to construction.
Smith says that having to make purchasing decisions two to three years before construction starts, rather than just six to 12 months ahead of schedule, these supply chain challenges increase project costs by 20% ~ 30%.
Lin Bo Qiang, director of the China Energy Policy Research Institute at Xiamen University, said that the reason for the release of Chinese solar panels in the United States is simple.
"The fight can't be lost" is the reason the United States loves and hates Chinese solar energy products. American manufacturers cannot compete with Chinese companies. The two are about the same in quality and technology, but Chinese products are a lot cheaper, "Lin said, adding that restricting Chinese companies is essentially an attempt to protect the U.S. domestic industry and that the Biden administration's Inflation Reduction Act seeks to curb China in all its aspects.
