Law360 quoted McGuireWoods partner Michael Woodard in a Feb. 4, 2022 story on the renewal of global safeguard tariffs on imported solar cells and panels. The Biden administration extended the Trump-era tariffs by four years, but doubled the initial amount of solar cells that are exempt to 5 gigawatts and exempted double-sided solar panels, which are favored by many project developers.
“I still think the biggest win for developers is just simply: It’s showing that the [Biden] administration is starting to go in a different direction,” said Woodard, who chairs the firm’s M&A and Energy Transactional Department and advises clients on solar project development.
Woodard said the exemption carved out for double-sided panels could prompt some developers to redesign projects containing single-sided panels.
“I think you will see developers starting to look at their projects and which ones could they now switch to bifacials, and what that would do to the [projects’ financial] numbers,” he said. “It depends on where they are in the project. At some point, it’s too late, because they might already have certain conditional use permits.”