Biden’s climate law leveraged by Chinese companies to broaden their solar supremacy
The president aimed to reduce China's dominance in the global solar parts market by investing in U.S. manufacturing facilities. However, Chinese companies are successfully leveraging these financial resources.
TroibNews 
A year ago, the Biden administration accused one of China’s largest solar manufacturers of evading American tariffs. Now, Trina Solar is establishing a significant panel factory in Texas, potentially eligible for over $1 billion in tax subsidies under President Joe Biden’s climate legislation.
This strategic move raises important questions for U.S. officials: Should America incentivize companies from a major rival for the sake of creating jobs and promoting clean energy domestically?
Providing billions in taxpayer funds to Chinese firms might lower solar energy costs, generate jobs, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, it could also hinder American manufacturers that are finding it difficult to compete with several low-cost Chinese imports and undermine national efforts to establish clean energy technologies in the U.S.
Trina’s factory aligns with the goals envisioned by White House officials when Biden enacted the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, but it is owned by a Chinese entity. Critics of the company note that the Biden administration has previously claimed Trina evaded U.S. tariffs on China by rerouting its shipments through Southeast Asia.
A White House official, speaking anonymously, pointed out that the climate legislation does not have any provisions to exclude Chinese solar companies from receiving tax credits under the IRA.
Leaders in Wilmer, where the factory is being built, are optimistic about the impact Trina’s investment will have, promising to create 1,300 local jobs with an annual payroll of $80 million.
The city’s nonpartisan mayor, Sheila Petta, called the company's arrival “a blessing.” “The people with Trina have been marvelous," she added. "I’ll be honest with you, I wish I had a few more companies like that.”
Nonetheless, opinions are divided. The idea of Chinese firms benefiting from Biden’s climate initiative has sparked intense debate in Congress, where there are increasing demands to prevent such businesses from receiving IRA funding. This conflict has also fragmented the U.S. solar industry, dividing manufacturers concerned about low-cost imports from Asia against developers and installers that depend on affordable foreign equipment.
This debate unfolds during a narrow contest between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, both of whom have expressed worries about China flooding U.S. markets with products like solar panels.
“Communist China has been working to circumvent U.S. laws and undermine American manufacturers in the solar industry for years under the Biden/Harris administration, harming our national security and energy independence,” commented Sen. Rick Scott, a Florida Republican, in July, when he introduced a bill, supported by two Democrats, aimed at prohibiting Chinese solar manufacturers from securing IRA tax credits.
This scenario was not the intended outcome of the IRA. When Biden and congressional Democrats endorsed the act, their goal was to stimulate a “Made-in-America” clean energy movement. The law offers substantial subsidies to companies that establish factories producing solar components, aiming to revitalize U.S. manufacturing and regain control of clean energy supply chains from China.
Now, however, Chinese corporations are actually setting up operations in America.
If Trina's Texas factory achieves full operation by early 2025, it could qualify for around $1.8 billion in American tax subsidies over the next seven years, as noted by analysts from the consultancy BloombergNEF.
Trina is not alone in this; eight China-linked companies have invested over $1.2 billion to construct 23.6 gigawatts of module capacity since the IRA was enacted, according to insights from manufacturers and an examination of Energy Department data by PMG’s E&E News. Approximately 14.5 gigawatts of that capacity is already operational, making up nearly a third of U.S. panel production.
Neither the Trump nor Harris campaigns provided comments. However, the issue was lightly addressed during last month's vice presidential debate, when Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, claimed that “the largest solar manufacturing plant in North America sits in Minnesota” due to the IRA.
He was likely referencing a module factory near Minneapolis owned by the Canadian company Heliene.
The claim was promptly contested by Ohio Sen. JD Vance, Trump’s running mate. “The real issue is that if you're spending hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars of American taxpayer money on solar panels that are made in China, No. 1, you're going to make the economy dirtier,” Vance stated.
This exchange underscores the high stakes for the solar sector. The extent to which IRA funding benefits foreign manufacturers could significantly influence the number of U.S. solar installations and new jobs—factors crucial for public backing of clean energy, analysts suggest.
“You've got to have a larger sprinkling of benefits from these projects, not just to reduce emissions, but also tangible jobs and local investments because that's what's really going to hold the politics together,” explained David Victor, a professor at the University of California San Diego studying the energy transition. “It was that promise that was why the IRA, I think, got done in the first place.”
Many U.S. manufacturers argue that enhanced trade protections are essential to securing the political and economic advantages of the law. A coalition of solar equipment makers formally approached federal trade regulators in April, alleging that Chinese companies have engaged in unfair trade practices and requesting higher tariffs. The Commerce Department voted in favor of these groups in a preliminary decision announced last month, introducing an initial set of penalties.
“We have these generational, once-in-a-lifetime investments in solar manufacturing made possible by the Inflation Reduction Act, and we have to have the enforcement to back it up so that those investments are not undercut by unfair and illegal trade,” asserted Tim Brightbill, an attorney representing the American Alliance for Solar Manufacturing Trade Committee, who advocates for additional tariffs.
Conversely, numerous renewable energy developers and industry analysts fear that efforts to restrict Chinese companies from the U.S. solar market could backfire, hampering an industry that has flourished under Biden’s climate initiatives.
They advocate adopting a strategy reminiscent of the 1980s, when U.S. policymakers compelled Japanese automakers to establish production facilities in the U.S. before marketing vehicles to American consumers.
“There is this kind of global innovation system that I think has been one of the primary reasons why we've had this miracle of the cost of solar falling so much,” stated Gregory Nemet, a professor at the University of Wisconsin and author of a book on the solar supply chain. “To put up walls and to put up barriers, I think we're going to squander some of that.”
Trina Solar exemplifies the precarious balance the U.S. faces. The company, based in Changzhou, ranked fourth globally in panel shipments in 2023 and was identified as one of five companies with ties to China accused by the Commerce Department last year of avoiding American tariffs.
Similar to numerous Chinese firms, most of Trina’s U.S. shipments originate from Southeast Asia. In 2023, nearly 80 percent of U.S. solar module and cell imports came from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam, as reported by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
In its ruling last year, Commerce claimed that Trina was producing solar components in China and sending them to Thailand for “minor processing” to circumvent U.S. tariffs imposed during the Obama administration.
Trina has appealed this decision.
Despite this, the ruling may not have significantly affected solar imports. The Biden administration initiated a two-year pause on penalties for Trina and other implicated companies, giving them the opportunity to shift supply chains outside of China. For Trina, this included opening a factory in Vietnam dedicated to wafer production, an essential solar component.
Trina did receive a penalty for a separate decision from the Commerce Department, which determined that several solar firms operating in Southeast Asia had gained unfair subsidies. As a result, a 0.14-percent tariff was imposed on Trina’s U.S. shipments—minimal compared to the 23.06 percent penalty dealt to other companies.
A month after the Commerce Department's ruling last year, Trina announced plans to build a module factory in Wilmer, Texas, a community of 7,000 situated on Interstate 45 south of Dallas, a distribution hub for major corporations like Procter & Gamble, Nike, and Whirlpool. The factory is expected to be the city's largest manufacturer, according to Mayor Petta.
The sprawling 1.3 million-square-foot facility aims for a production capacity of 5 gigawatts per year when fully operational next year—enough to supply power to 500,000 homes annually.
The project positions Trina at the forefront of a solar manufacturing renaissance in America. In August, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory projected that nearly 90 percent of U.S. module capacity, or 35 gigawatts, has become operational since the IRA's passage two years ago.
First Solar, an Arizona-based manufacturer offering thin-film panels as an alternative to standard crystalline silicon models, is in the midst of an expansion phase, recently upgrading two of its Ohio facilities, completing a factory in Alabama, and constructing another in Louisiana. In Georgia, the South Korean company Hanwha Qcells has developed two factories, with one set to begin production of subcomponents like wafers and cells next year.
Moreover, Heliene, a Canadian panel manufacturer with a facility in Minnesota, has partnered with an Indian company to construct a cell manufacturing site near Minneapolis, which is slated to receive wafers from a newly developed factory in Tulsa, Oklahoma, being built by the Norwegian firm NorSun.
“We're doubling down,” declared Heliene’s CEO Martin Pochtaruk, citing a combination of U.S. trade protections and growing Republican backing for various aspects of the IRA as making investments “more feasible.”
Chinese firms are also responding positively. JinkoSolar has expanded its existing panel factory in Florida fivefold, Runergy has launched a 2-gigawatt facility in Alabama, and Hounen Solar commenced production at its 1-gigawatt factory in South Carolina.
For Trina, establishing a U.S. base has long been part of its strategy to better serve American clients. However, the costs associated with U.S. panel production were prohibitive, explained Steven Zhu, who oversees Trina’s North American operations.
The IRA has changed the landscape. “We bring the jobs, we bring the money, we bring the technology, we bring a lot of things to the market in order to help this market to be grown,” Zhu noted. “Our customers appreciate that. Our suppliers appreciate that also. And maybe some of our competitors are not very happy about it.”
Indeed, many competitors are dissatisfied.
The global price of solar panels fell to 10 cents per watt in the third quarter, which is cheaper than the production costs for some modules, indicated NREL. Prices in the U.S. average around 33 cents per watt due to tariffs that shield the market from certain cheap Chinese panels.
“Unfortunately, China's playbook for solar is the same as it is in electric vehicles and semiconductors and batteries, which is where the government heavily subsidizes the industry to create massive overcapacity, then ship that overcapacity globally, especially to the United States,” asserted Brightbill from the American Alliance for Solar Manufacturing Trade Committee. “We need a different approach.”
This coalition includes Korea’s Qcells, Swiss solar manufacturer Meyer Burger, and First Solar.
Calls for increasing tariffs have sparked protests from renewable energy developers who argue that the U.S. will struggle to revitalize its solar industry and meet climate objectives without cooperation from China.
Invenergy, a renewable energy developer based in Chicago, ventured into manufacturing after pandemic-induced supply chain disruptions. Lacking experience in panel production, it sought assistance from its Chinese supplier LONGi, leading to the creation of a joint venture named Illuminate USA, which now produces panels at a new factory near Columbus, Ohio. Invenergy is the majority owner of this venture.
“We as a country have offshored the majority of this technology for the last 25-30 years,” Fletcher stated. “We have been focused on consuming the end products, but we haven't been focused on manufacturing itself.”
Some U.S. manufacturers argue that Chinese-built factories could act as a Trojan horse, enabling China to maintain its dominance over the global solar market and suffocating local competitors.
Module assembly comprises the final step in the solar manufacturing process; a large number of components required for panels are sourced from China. The country holds at least an 80 percent share of the global production of ingots, wafers, and cells, according to the International Energy Agency.
This means that even U.S.-based Chinese factories would likely rely on imported components, further consolidating Beijing's influence over the solar supply chain, cautioned Mike Carr, leading the Solar Energy Manufacturers Coalition, a trade group advocating for extra tariffs on Chinese components.
“You can’t just take at face value that they’re assembling modules in the U.S.,” Carr highlighted. “If there is no alternative to Chinese upstream components, like polysilicon and wafers, then you just don’t have a viable supply chain in the U.S. There is a strategic imperative to have a U.S.-based supply chain that can provide all the fundamental components.”
In July, Democratic Senators Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Jon Ossoff of Georgia joined Scott in advancing legislation to restrict Chinese firms from qualifying for a manufacturing tax credit known as 45X.
While the IRA includes provisions barring Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers from accessing tax credits, it does not extend those restrictions to solar panel production.
The future of this legislative proposal remains uncertain. Brown, who faces a challenging reelection campaign, refrained from responding to inquiries about how the measure might influence joint ventures between American firms and their Chinese counterparts.
“Senator Brown knows that China will do anything to undermine the American solar industry and its workers, including trying to infiltrate the American solar supply chain and take advantage of tax credits meant for American manufacturers,” his spokesperson Kevin Donohue stated.
Texas’ two Republican senators opted not to comment on Trina’s new plant near Dallas or its plans to accept IRA subsidies. A representative for Sen. John Cornyn indicated that he voted against the IRA when asked if he supports efforts to limit Chinese companies' access to funds under the climate law. Sen. Ted Cruz did not respond to inquiries but previously hailed the establishment of Canadian Solar’s 5-gigawatt factory near Dallas, praising it as an “incredible investment” that “will create 1,500 good-paying jobs in Texas.” However, Canadian Solar is headquartered in Ontario, with 80 percent of its workforce based in China. The Commerce Department flagged the company for circumventing U.S. tariffs last year.
The 45X tax credit compensates factory owners based on their production of individual components. For instance, a solar module can earn 7 cents per watt, translating to $70,000 per megawatt, although this amount will decrease starting in 2029.
Trina’s Texas factory could acquire $1.775 billion from 2025 through 2032 if it maintains a 78 percent utilization rate, as noted by Antoine Vagneur-Jones, head of trade and supply chains at BloombergNEF. At a 60 percent utilization rate, Trina could still exceed $1 billion.
Restricting Chinese companies from accessing these credits might hinder American attempts to establish a solar supply chain, Vagneur-Jones observed. “It doesn't bode well for catching up if you’re not willing to invite them over and learn from them,” he remarked.
In Ohio, Illuminate’s factory has faced resistance from local residents concerned about Chinese influence within their community. Local leaders largely brushed off these worries, classifying them as the opinions of a vocal minority.
“We’re keeping an eye on it, but we’re not going to chase away business when they’ve done nothing wrong and they’re partnering with us,” stated Mike Compton, the mayor of Pataskala.
Mayor Petta of Wilmer, Texas, believes her community is largely supportive of Trina’s new factory and its expected job creation.
“If they had any concerns, they have not said anything to me or my council,” Petta stated. “We don’t want to lose ’em. Like I said, they are a great company.”
This story also appears in Energywire.
Ramin Sohrabi for TROIB News
This strategic move raises important questions for U.S. officials: Should America incentivize companies from a major rival for the sake of creating jobs and promoting clean energy domestically?
Providing billions in taxpayer funds to Chinese firms might lower solar energy costs, generate jobs, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, it could also hinder American manufacturers that are finding it difficult to compete with several low-cost Chinese imports and undermine national efforts to establish clean energy technologies in the U.S.
Trina’s factory aligns with the goals envisioned by White House officials when Biden enacted the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, but it is owned by a Chinese entity. Critics of the company note that the Biden administration has previously claimed Trina evaded U.S. tariffs on China by rerouting its shipments through Southeast Asia.
A White House official, speaking anonymously, pointed out that the climate legislation does not have any provisions to exclude Chinese solar companies from receiving tax credits under the IRA.
Leaders in Wilmer, where the factory is being built, are optimistic about the impact Trina’s investment will have, promising to create 1,300 local jobs with an annual payroll of $80 million.
The city’s nonpartisan mayor, Sheila Petta, called the company's arrival “a blessing.” “The people with Trina have been marvelous," she added. "I’ll be honest with you, I wish I had a few more companies like that.”
Nonetheless, opinions are divided. The idea of Chinese firms benefiting from Biden’s climate initiative has sparked intense debate in Congress, where there are increasing demands to prevent such businesses from receiving IRA funding. This conflict has also fragmented the U.S. solar industry, dividing manufacturers concerned about low-cost imports from Asia against developers and installers that depend on affordable foreign equipment.
This debate unfolds during a narrow contest between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, both of whom have expressed worries about China flooding U.S. markets with products like solar panels.
“Communist China has been working to circumvent U.S. laws and undermine American manufacturers in the solar industry for years under the Biden/Harris administration, harming our national security and energy independence,” commented Sen. Rick Scott, a Florida Republican, in July, when he introduced a bill, supported by two Democrats, aimed at prohibiting Chinese solar manufacturers from securing IRA tax credits.
This scenario was not the intended outcome of the IRA. When Biden and congressional Democrats endorsed the act, their goal was to stimulate a “Made-in-America” clean energy movement. The law offers substantial subsidies to companies that establish factories producing solar components, aiming to revitalize U.S. manufacturing and regain control of clean energy supply chains from China.
Now, however, Chinese corporations are actually setting up operations in America.
If Trina's Texas factory achieves full operation by early 2025, it could qualify for around $1.8 billion in American tax subsidies over the next seven years, as noted by analysts from the consultancy BloombergNEF.
Trina is not alone in this; eight China-linked companies have invested over $1.2 billion to construct 23.6 gigawatts of module capacity since the IRA was enacted, according to insights from manufacturers and an examination of Energy Department data by PMG’s E&E News. Approximately 14.5 gigawatts of that capacity is already operational, making up nearly a third of U.S. panel production.
Neither the Trump nor Harris campaigns provided comments. However, the issue was lightly addressed during last month's vice presidential debate, when Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, claimed that “the largest solar manufacturing plant in North America sits in Minnesota” due to the IRA.
He was likely referencing a module factory near Minneapolis owned by the Canadian company Heliene.
The claim was promptly contested by Ohio Sen. JD Vance, Trump’s running mate. “The real issue is that if you're spending hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars of American taxpayer money on solar panels that are made in China, No. 1, you're going to make the economy dirtier,” Vance stated.
This exchange underscores the high stakes for the solar sector. The extent to which IRA funding benefits foreign manufacturers could significantly influence the number of U.S. solar installations and new jobs—factors crucial for public backing of clean energy, analysts suggest.
“You've got to have a larger sprinkling of benefits from these projects, not just to reduce emissions, but also tangible jobs and local investments because that's what's really going to hold the politics together,” explained David Victor, a professor at the University of California San Diego studying the energy transition. “It was that promise that was why the IRA, I think, got done in the first place.”
Many U.S. manufacturers argue that enhanced trade protections are essential to securing the political and economic advantages of the law. A coalition of solar equipment makers formally approached federal trade regulators in April, alleging that Chinese companies have engaged in unfair trade practices and requesting higher tariffs. The Commerce Department voted in favor of these groups in a preliminary decision announced last month, introducing an initial set of penalties.
“We have these generational, once-in-a-lifetime investments in solar manufacturing made possible by the Inflation Reduction Act, and we have to have the enforcement to back it up so that those investments are not undercut by unfair and illegal trade,” asserted Tim Brightbill, an attorney representing the American Alliance for Solar Manufacturing Trade Committee, who advocates for additional tariffs.
Conversely, numerous renewable energy developers and industry analysts fear that efforts to restrict Chinese companies from the U.S. solar market could backfire, hampering an industry that has flourished under Biden’s climate initiatives.
They advocate adopting a strategy reminiscent of the 1980s, when U.S. policymakers compelled Japanese automakers to establish production facilities in the U.S. before marketing vehicles to American consumers.
“There is this kind of global innovation system that I think has been one of the primary reasons why we've had this miracle of the cost of solar falling so much,” stated Gregory Nemet, a professor at the University of Wisconsin and author of a book on the solar supply chain. “To put up walls and to put up barriers, I think we're going to squander some of that.”
Trina Solar exemplifies the precarious balance the U.S. faces. The company, based in Changzhou, ranked fourth globally in panel shipments in 2023 and was identified as one of five companies with ties to China accused by the Commerce Department last year of avoiding American tariffs.
Similar to numerous Chinese firms, most of Trina’s U.S. shipments originate from Southeast Asia. In 2023, nearly 80 percent of U.S. solar module and cell imports came from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam, as reported by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
In its ruling last year, Commerce claimed that Trina was producing solar components in China and sending them to Thailand for “minor processing” to circumvent U.S. tariffs imposed during the Obama administration.
Trina has appealed this decision.
Despite this, the ruling may not have significantly affected solar imports. The Biden administration initiated a two-year pause on penalties for Trina and other implicated companies, giving them the opportunity to shift supply chains outside of China. For Trina, this included opening a factory in Vietnam dedicated to wafer production, an essential solar component.
Trina did receive a penalty for a separate decision from the Commerce Department, which determined that several solar firms operating in Southeast Asia had gained unfair subsidies. As a result, a 0.14-percent tariff was imposed on Trina’s U.S. shipments—minimal compared to the 23.06 percent penalty dealt to other companies.
A month after the Commerce Department's ruling last year, Trina announced plans to build a module factory in Wilmer, Texas, a community of 7,000 situated on Interstate 45 south of Dallas, a distribution hub for major corporations like Procter & Gamble, Nike, and Whirlpool. The factory is expected to be the city's largest manufacturer, according to Mayor Petta.
The sprawling 1.3 million-square-foot facility aims for a production capacity of 5 gigawatts per year when fully operational next year—enough to supply power to 500,000 homes annually.
The project positions Trina at the forefront of a solar manufacturing renaissance in America. In August, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory projected that nearly 90 percent of U.S. module capacity, or 35 gigawatts, has become operational since the IRA's passage two years ago.
First Solar, an Arizona-based manufacturer offering thin-film panels as an alternative to standard crystalline silicon models, is in the midst of an expansion phase, recently upgrading two of its Ohio facilities, completing a factory in Alabama, and constructing another in Louisiana. In Georgia, the South Korean company Hanwha Qcells has developed two factories, with one set to begin production of subcomponents like wafers and cells next year.
Moreover, Heliene, a Canadian panel manufacturer with a facility in Minnesota, has partnered with an Indian company to construct a cell manufacturing site near Minneapolis, which is slated to receive wafers from a newly developed factory in Tulsa, Oklahoma, being built by the Norwegian firm NorSun.
“We're doubling down,” declared Heliene’s CEO Martin Pochtaruk, citing a combination of U.S. trade protections and growing Republican backing for various aspects of the IRA as making investments “more feasible.”
Chinese firms are also responding positively. JinkoSolar has expanded its existing panel factory in Florida fivefold, Runergy has launched a 2-gigawatt facility in Alabama, and Hounen Solar commenced production at its 1-gigawatt factory in South Carolina.
For Trina, establishing a U.S. base has long been part of its strategy to better serve American clients. However, the costs associated with U.S. panel production were prohibitive, explained Steven Zhu, who oversees Trina’s North American operations.
The IRA has changed the landscape. “We bring the jobs, we bring the money, we bring the technology, we bring a lot of things to the market in order to help this market to be grown,” Zhu noted. “Our customers appreciate that. Our suppliers appreciate that also. And maybe some of our competitors are not very happy about it.”
Indeed, many competitors are dissatisfied.
The global price of solar panels fell to 10 cents per watt in the third quarter, which is cheaper than the production costs for some modules, indicated NREL. Prices in the U.S. average around 33 cents per watt due to tariffs that shield the market from certain cheap Chinese panels.
“Unfortunately, China's playbook for solar is the same as it is in electric vehicles and semiconductors and batteries, which is where the government heavily subsidizes the industry to create massive overcapacity, then ship that overcapacity globally, especially to the United States,” asserted Brightbill from the American Alliance for Solar Manufacturing Trade Committee. “We need a different approach.”
This coalition includes Korea’s Qcells, Swiss solar manufacturer Meyer Burger, and First Solar.
Calls for increasing tariffs have sparked protests from renewable energy developers who argue that the U.S. will struggle to revitalize its solar industry and meet climate objectives without cooperation from China.
Invenergy, a renewable energy developer based in Chicago, ventured into manufacturing after pandemic-induced supply chain disruptions. Lacking experience in panel production, it sought assistance from its Chinese supplier LONGi, leading to the creation of a joint venture named Illuminate USA, which now produces panels at a new factory near Columbus, Ohio. Invenergy is the majority owner of this venture.
“We as a country have offshored the majority of this technology for the last 25-30 years,” Fletcher stated. “We have been focused on consuming the end products, but we haven't been focused on manufacturing itself.”
Some U.S. manufacturers argue that Chinese-built factories could act as a Trojan horse, enabling China to maintain its dominance over the global solar market and suffocating local competitors.
Module assembly comprises the final step in the solar manufacturing process; a large number of components required for panels are sourced from China. The country holds at least an 80 percent share of the global production of ingots, wafers, and cells, according to the International Energy Agency.
This means that even U.S.-based Chinese factories would likely rely on imported components, further consolidating Beijing's influence over the solar supply chain, cautioned Mike Carr, leading the Solar Energy Manufacturers Coalition, a trade group advocating for extra tariffs on Chinese components.
“You can’t just take at face value that they’re assembling modules in the U.S.,” Carr highlighted. “If there is no alternative to Chinese upstream components, like polysilicon and wafers, then you just don’t have a viable supply chain in the U.S. There is a strategic imperative to have a U.S.-based supply chain that can provide all the fundamental components.”
In July, Democratic Senators Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Jon Ossoff of Georgia joined Scott in advancing legislation to restrict Chinese firms from qualifying for a manufacturing tax credit known as 45X.
While the IRA includes provisions barring Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers from accessing tax credits, it does not extend those restrictions to solar panel production.
The future of this legislative proposal remains uncertain. Brown, who faces a challenging reelection campaign, refrained from responding to inquiries about how the measure might influence joint ventures between American firms and their Chinese counterparts.
“Senator Brown knows that China will do anything to undermine the American solar industry and its workers, including trying to infiltrate the American solar supply chain and take advantage of tax credits meant for American manufacturers,” his spokesperson Kevin Donohue stated.
Texas’ two Republican senators opted not to comment on Trina’s new plant near Dallas or its plans to accept IRA subsidies. A representative for Sen. John Cornyn indicated that he voted against the IRA when asked if he supports efforts to limit Chinese companies' access to funds under the climate law. Sen. Ted Cruz did not respond to inquiries but previously hailed the establishment of Canadian Solar’s 5-gigawatt factory near Dallas, praising it as an “incredible investment” that “will create 1,500 good-paying jobs in Texas.” However, Canadian Solar is headquartered in Ontario, with 80 percent of its workforce based in China. The Commerce Department flagged the company for circumventing U.S. tariffs last year.
The 45X tax credit compensates factory owners based on their production of individual components. For instance, a solar module can earn 7 cents per watt, translating to $70,000 per megawatt, although this amount will decrease starting in 2029.
Trina’s Texas factory could acquire $1.775 billion from 2025 through 2032 if it maintains a 78 percent utilization rate, as noted by Antoine Vagneur-Jones, head of trade and supply chains at BloombergNEF. At a 60 percent utilization rate, Trina could still exceed $1 billion.
Restricting Chinese companies from accessing these credits might hinder American attempts to establish a solar supply chain, Vagneur-Jones observed. “It doesn't bode well for catching up if you’re not willing to invite them over and learn from them,” he remarked.
In Ohio, Illuminate’s factory has faced resistance from local residents concerned about Chinese influence within their community. Local leaders largely brushed off these worries, classifying them as the opinions of a vocal minority.
“We’re keeping an eye on it, but we’re not going to chase away business when they’ve done nothing wrong and they’re partnering with us,” stated Mike Compton, the mayor of Pataskala.
Mayor Petta of Wilmer, Texas, believes her community is largely supportive of Trina’s new factory and its expected job creation.
“If they had any concerns, they have not said anything to me or my council,” Petta stated. “We don’t want to lose ’em. Like I said, they are a great company.”
This story also appears in Energywire.
Ramin Sohrabi for TROIB News
