Bifacial panels prove a boon for solar sector

Bloomberg

The solar industry has a new way of ducking the Trump administration’s tariffs on its imports:
two-sided panels.
The US Trade Representative said in a notice that it’s granting an exemption to solar duties for bifacial panels, ones that can generate power on both sides. The carve-out is a win for both Asian manufacturers including JinkoSolar Holding Co, LG Electronics Inc and Hanwha Q Cells Co and big US solar-farm developers that can easily switch over to using them.
“This could insulate almost the entire utility-scale market from tariffs,” BloombergNEF solar analyst Hugh Bromley said. “I would expect the utility-scale industry to pivot almost 100 percent to bifacial products.”
The exemption may represent the clearest solution yet for an industry that’s been roiled by the import tariffs, imposed by the Trump administration in January 2018 as a way of levelling the playing field for US panel makers. Some companies have already shifted their entire supply chains to skirt the duties. Others are building factories in the US. In September, California-based solar maker SunPower Corp. won an exemption, arguing that its panels — made mostly in factories abroad — are a premium product.

BOOST ADOPTION
“We’ve been advocating for additional exclusions, and bifacial modules in particular, for over a year now,” said John Smirnow, vice president of market strategy for the trade group Solar Energy Industries Association. “This exemption will accelerate the adoption of bifacial technology in the US, which is still in a relatively early stage.”
Roth Capital Partners said the news may be negative for US solar maker First Solar Inc. and positive for Jinko and Canadian Solar Inc., which in May agreed to supply 1,800 megawatts of bifacial and traditional modules to EDF Renewables. US solar installers Sunrun Inc. and Vivint Solar Inc. also stand to benefit, analyst Philip Shen said.
First Solar fell 6.8 percent. In a research note, Shen said that “upon further review” the impacts on First Solar “may not be that bad.” First Solar was up 2.9 percent in New York.
The exemption is another sign that bifacial products will gain momentum in the industry, JinkoSolar’s vice president Qian Jing said in response to Bloomberg queries. “There’s huge market potential in the US and the rest of the world,” she said.
The sentiment is echoed by Chinese producer Longi Green Energy Technology Co. Tariffs have made US prices of bifacial products about 50 percent more expensive than elsewhere, and the exempti-ons now will support US clean energy developm-ent, said the company’s President Li Zhenguo.