Solar Memo

This report is the second in a series from JFI’s Financing the Energy Transition initiative, pairing market analysis with levelized-cost-of-energy modeling to evaluate how trade and industrial policy are interacting with market forces to shape the transition to a low-carbon economy. This memo focuses on the on-shoring of solar module assembly.

US solar policy is on track to completely displace imported solar modules, thanks to a combination of tariffs on imports and tax credits for domestic manufacturing. The trade-offs of onshoring module assembly, in terms of the cost of solar energy, appear modest.