Solar Power World
By Kelly Pickerel | August 6, 2026
The Trump administration has revealed the results of the Sec. 232 trade investigation on the polysilicon industry. Each imported solar component consisting of polysilicon — pure polysilicon, wafers, cells and finished panels — will have a 15% tariff, regardless of country of origin. The tariffs will begin in 120 days, or Dec. 4, 2026.
The United States has also set minimum import prices (MIPs) for polysilicon and its derivatives:
This should allow domestic manufacturers to better compete on price, as there is now a minimum price that all imported components cannot fall below.
Silicon solar cell manufacturing. Credit: Qcells
The United States averages 50 GW of new solar installations each year. And although domestic solar panel assemblers have the capacity to produce nearly 70 GW of panels annually, many solar panels are still being imported because of pricing. Recent estimates had U.S.-assembled panels averaging 31¢/W while India-assembled panels cost 14¢/W and Southeast Asian panels are 27¢/W.
An investigation under Sec. 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 allows the federal government to impose tariffs, quotas or minimum prices on imported products if they are deemed to be a threat to national security. Polysilicon is the base building block for silicon solar panels and semiconductors. The federal government has framed these tariffs as a way to boost domestic production of this important component and its derivatives.
“This is a decisive win for advanced American manufacturing and investment in domestic energy supply chains. But most important, it helps companies like ours that are creating thousands of high-quality American jobs,” said Dan Barcelo, chairman and CEO of T1 Energy, a recent solar panel player in the United States that operates a panel assembly plant in Texas. The company is investing $510 million into a solar cell facility, also in Texas, and expects to produce its first cells in early 2027. 
The U.S. government initiated the Sec. 232 investigation into the polysilicon industry in July 2025. Soon after, the Dept. of Commerce received almost 50 public comments on the matter, including from domestic solar panel players, polysilicon-focused companies and various trade associations. Most of the commenters were involved with the solar industry, although some groups commented on polysilicon’s role in the semiconductor industry.
Commerce analyzed the demand for polysilicon in the United States and whether domestic production can meet such demand. Polysilicon production in the United States was essentially gutted during the China-America trade war of the 2010s. U.S. polysilicon producers saw their market share shrink from $1 billion in 2011 to $107 million in 2018 after China placed high duties on American-made polysilicon. China has since overtaken the global market, now estimated to hold a 93.5% market share.
Only Hemlock and Wacker are producing polysilicon in the United States today, both for the solar and electronics markets. There are also a handful of non-China players that contribute to the solar industry, including OCI in Malaysia and Wacker’s German plant. Intertek CEA estimated that only 92,000 metric tons (mt) of polysilicon capacity is operational outside of China. Meanwhile, China’s operational polysilicon capacity reached 3,250,000 mt in 2024.
The Trump administration expects that these Sec. 232 tariffs and MIPs will level the playing field in the polysilicon industry, and more companies will commit to gigawatt-scale polysilicon efforts in the United States, while also allowing established U.S. manufacturers to continue their growth.
The fact that the tariffs are global could lead to fewer antidumping/countervailing duty (AD/CVD) investigation requests into specific countries allegedly flooding the U.S. market with cheap solar products. Domestic manufacturers have repeatedly asked the U.S. government to enforce long-standing tariffs on Chinese solar companies. The Chinese companies are accused of moving operations to secondary countries to avoid paying tariffs, and domestic manufacturers have successfully petitioned for the same tariffs to apply to new countries — Taiwan, Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. India, Indonesia and Laos will soon be added to that list, and the government is also considering AD/CVD investigations into Ethiopia and South Korea.
“For the first time, the United States is protecting the entire solar supply chain with a single action — and rewarding the manufacturers that build here — while taking a significant step to bolster the domestic semiconductor supply chain,” said Jon Toomey, president of the domestic manufacturing organization Coalition for a Prosperous America. “This is how you reshore an industry, and it is how you solve the endless game of AD/CVD whack-a-mole that American polysilicon and solar manufacturers have been forced to fight for decades.”
Qcells, the one company in America on track to onshore the entire silicon solar supply chain (sans polysilicon), welcomes the Sec. 232 tariffs. The company, backed by Korea’s Hanwha Solutions, has spent billions to equip a site in Cartersville, Georgia, to manufacture wafers, cells and panels.
“Today’s decision from the White House balances the reality of where America’s solar energy manufacturing is today while advancing our collective ambition to onshore the entire supply chain from polysilicon to finished panels in the U.S.,” said Andy Park, Global CEO of Hanwha Qcells. “This decision helps support the billions of dollars invested and the thousands of jobs created at factories around the country. It also helps lay the groundwork for more investments, more jobs and more innovation to come. Demand for reliable, affordable and safe energy has never been higher. American solar manufacturers are ready to rise to the occasion.”
Within President Trump’s proclamation, he authorizes the Dept. of Commerce to establish an incentive program for companies willing to invest in building, expanding or refurbishing facilities that produce polysilicon and its derivatives.
Kelly Pickerel has more than 15 years of experience reporting on the U.S. solar industry and is currently editor in chief of Solar Power World. Email Kelly.

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