Climate Politics

US Solar’s Hoarding Habit Will Help Blunt Sting From Trump Tariffs

The US has imported about 80% of modules from four Southeast Asian countries that face big new levies.

Workers install solar panels on the roof of a home in San Francisco, California.Photographer: Michaela Vatcheva/Bloomberg
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America’s solar industry has a strategy for dulling US tariffs: hoard.

Developers have been amassing piles of solar panels for more than a year, in part because of other US levies imposed before President Donald Trump took office in January. The stockpile is now so big that analysts estimate there’s roughly 50 gigawatts worth of the equipment in warehouses. That’s enough panels to power about 8.6 million homes.