On April 11, Eastern Time, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) issued a tariff update guide. According to the guide, the United States exempted 20 tariff items in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS) from the "reciprocal tariffs" under Executive Order 14257. These products include automatic data processors, computers, communications equipment, displays and modules, semiconductor-related categories, etc.   From the evening of the 12th to the 13th, some media reported that "solar cells" were also on the exemption list.   However, after checking HTSUS, solar cells were not explicitly mentioned in the 20 categories of products given in the exemption list. The current mainstream crystalline silicon solar cell tariff number is 8541.42.0010, and the crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells that have been made into components, the tariff number is 8541.43.0010, are not on the exemption list.   The following are the exemption product codes released by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection CBP on April 11:

SUNWAFE SL, a solar ingot silicon wafer manufacturer headquartered in Barcelona, ​​has become one of the proposed winners of the Strategic Economic Recovery and Transformation Project (PERTE) funding support program organized by the Spanish Ministry of Ecological Transition and Population Challenges (MITECO).   In the funding allocation led by the Spanish Institute for Energy Diversification and Energy Saving (IDEA), SUNWAFE received 199.9 million euros in a total initial grant of 297.3 million euros.   According to SUNWAFE's official website, the company plans to achieve 20GW (2.5 billion pieces) of silicon wafer production capacity at its Spanish factory by 2030. The company has received support from the European Energy Innovation Agency EIT InnoEnergy (now renamed InnoEnergy).   This round of MITECO funding covers 34 projects, all of which focus on supporting the manufacturing of renewable energy equipment in Spain. Most of the funds go to the manufacturing of electrolyzers and other components related to green hydrogen production, in addition to 4 energy storage projects and 1 project involving heat pumps.   In addition to SUNWAFE, there are 6 other solar-related projects selected this time, including photovoltaic module manufacturers European Solar Cell Company, S.L. and MCPV Manufacturing Spain. MCPV recently announced that its Spanish module factory construction project has been successfully selected for this round of government funding. It is worth noting that MCPV is the photovoltaic manufacturing subsidiary of Resilient Group and is building a 4GW heterojunction (HJT) battery factory in the Netherlands.   All the proposed projects are distributed in 12 autonomous regions in Spain.   MITECO said that the funding plan benefits from the simplified approval procedures of the European Commission and is in line with the EU's crisis and transition country aid framework in response to the new geopolitical context of the Russian- Ukrainian conflict and energy transformation.

On March 27, 2025, the Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry issued an announcement stating that in response to applications submitted by Indian domestic companies Asahi India Glass Ltd., Gold Plus Glass Industry Ltd., Gold Plus Float Glass Pvt. Ltd. and Saint Gobain India Pvt. Ltd., the first anti-dumping sunset review investigation was initiated on float glass (Clear Float Glass) originating in or imported from Malaysia. This case mainly involves products under Indian customs code 70051090 and some products under 7003, 7004, 7005, 7009, 7019, 7013, 7015, 7016, 7018, and 7020. The dumping investigation period of this case is from October 1, 2023, to September 30, 2024 (12 months), and the injury investigation period is from 2021 to 2022, 2022 to 2023, 2023 to 2024, and from October 1, 202,3 to September 30, 2024.   Interested parties should submit relevant information to the investigation authority by email (sent to dir13-dgtr@gov.in, ad12-dgtr@gov.in, dir15-dgtr@gov.i,n and consultant-dgtr@nic.in) within 30 days from the date of filing the case.   On August 23, 2019, the Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry issued an announcement stating that, in response to a joint application submitted by Indian companies Saint-Gobain India Pvt Ltd., Sisecam Flat Glass India Ltd., Gold Plus Glass Industries Ltd. and Asahi India Glass Ltd., an anti-dumping investigation was initiated on float glass originating in or imported from Malaysia. On August 20, 2020, the Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry made a positive final ruling on the case. On November 11, 2020, the Indian Ministry of Finance's Taxation Department issued Notification No. 30/2020-Customs (ADD), deciding to impose anti-dumping duties on float glass with a thickness of 4 mm to 12 mm from Malaysia. The tax amount is the difference between the landed value of the imported goods (provided that it is lower than the minimum price) and the minimum price, which is US$273.12-326.00/ton. The measure is valid for 5 years and will end on November 10, 2025.

According to the latest survey, China's policies stimulate the overall demand for the photovoltaic industry, and the supply of components is tense. Demand is expected to peak in March and April 2025, which may drive the price of the industry chain to rise in the second quarter.   China announced regulations on photovoltaic power generation and new energy electricity prices in late January and early February 2025. Suppose photovoltaic power generation projects are connected to the grid after May 31. In that case, they will no longer enjoy a fixed purchase price. Still, they will return to the market supply and demand to determine the price, thus triggering a "rush to install." Distributed photovoltaic projects will reach the peak of installation in the second quarter.   The photovoltaic industry maintains self-discipline, and at the same time, stimulated by China's "531 New Policy", downstream demand has rebounded rapidly. In recent months, polysilicon manufacturers have maintained low utilization rates, and there is no sign of production increase in the short term. It is expected that the momentum of silicon material price increases will continue into the second quarter, and the industry generally expects it to reach RMB 45/kg. However, the downstream installation demand will obviously converge in the third quarter, and since electricity costs account for about 30% of the raw material manufacturing production costs, when electricity costs fall during the flood season, material suppliers will most likely increase the utilization rate of production lines to obtain the reduction in electricity costs, but this will also lead to overcapacity and impact prices.   Consulting said that China's distributed project rush to install, coupled with the gradual recovery of demand in other regional markets, the overall silicon wafer demand in the second quarter remained optimistic. Against the backdrop of the price increase of leading enterprises and the self-discipline of industry production, silicon wafer prices are expected to continue to grow, especially the 210R-N type (N-type G12R monocrystalline silicon wafer), which has a large increase, and the price in April is expected to increase by more than 3.5% month-on-month. The supply and demand pattern of silicon wafers in the second quarter was generally stable, but the peak of installation in the third quarter has passed, and demand is expected to decline. Silicon wafer prices may decline, and the actual price still depends on the overall output.   In terms of batteries, since the downstream components have successfully increased in price, the price of battery cells has a trend of rising. In addition, the current battery cell inventory level is healthy, and the increase in production is mostly concentrated in leading enterprises, which is enough to support prices. It is expected that the price of M10L TOPCon and G12 TOPCon will increase by nearly 1.7% in April, and the price of G12R TOPCo...

According to the latest report of the Brazilian Photovoltaic Industry Association (ABSOLAR), Brazil's cumulative photovoltaic installed capacity has exceeded 55GW (DC), accounting for 22.2% of the country's power installed structure. At present, photovoltaic power generation is second only to hydropower in Brazil's power sources, which accounts for more than 40%.   According to ABSOLAR's report, in 2024, Brazil will add 14.97GW of DC photovoltaic installed capacity, bringing the total installed capacity to 52.88GW, including 37.4GW of distributed photovoltaic and 17.6GW of large ground power stations. Data provided by the Brazilian National Electricity Regulatory Agency (ANEEL) further confirms this development trend. As of February 28, 2025, Brazil's micro and small distributed photovoltaic (MMGD) installed capacity exceeded 37.61GW, with a total of 28.3 million systems connected to the grid, of which residential systems dominate.   The ABSOLAR report pointed out that since 2012, the photovoltaic industry has attracted more than 251.1 billion Brazilian reals (about 43.9 billion US dollars) in investment and created more than 1.6 million jobs. However, the country's photovoltaic industry still faces many challenges, the biggest bottleneck of which is the curtailment of renewable energy, which prevents companies from obtaining compensation, followed by the grid connection barriers of small-scale photovoltaic systems. The curtailment of projects invested in Brazil has caused the French photovoltaic company Voltalia to record a net loss in 2024. ABSOLAR also called on the government to approve the relevant bill 624/2023 on the Basic Energy Income Plan (REBE) to update the bill 14.300/2022 to address the limitations encountered by distributed systems when connecting to the distribution network. In addition, the association is pushing the government to include photovoltaic technology in the A-5 new energy auction held in August 2025 to promote the development of the industry.   ABSOLAR Chairman Ronaldo Koloszuk pointed out that the decline in the price of photovoltaic modules is conducive to the popularization of photovoltaics in the Brazilian market, but the large supply of low-priced modules from Chinese companies may be unfavorable to local manufacturers.   Recently, Brazil's National Interconnected Grid (SIN) announced that the country's photovoltaic power generation set a new single-hour record at 11:00 on March 14, 2025, reaching 37.869GW, accounting for 39% of the country's power load at that time.

France's latest draft of the new energy plan: photovoltaic installation targets have been greatly reduced, and local manufacturing is on the agenda   The French Ministry of Ecological Transition released the final draft of the Multi-annual Energy Plan (PPE3), proposing that by 2035, the national cumulative photovoltaic installed capacity target will be 65-90GW, lower than the previously planned 75-100GW target.   According to the latest target, France needs to add 4GW each year before 2035 to reach the 65GW target, and to achieve 90GW, it needs to add 7GW each year. France added 3.2 GW of photovoltaic installed capacity in 2023 and 3.5 GW in the first nine months of 2024. It still needs to speed up the promotion efforts to achieve the 2035 target.   According to the draft of PPE3, France plans to carry out two rounds of ground photovoltaic power station bidding every year from the first half of 2025, with a scale of 1GW each round. In addition, three rounds of rooftop photovoltaic project bidding will be held every year, with a scale of 300MW/round. At the same time, the government will also launch a 500MW technology-neutral project tender covering photovoltaic, hydropower, and onshore wind power projects.   According to the plan, small and medium-sized rooftop projects will account for 41% of France's total photovoltaic installed capacity in 2030, small ground photovoltaic projects will account for 5%, and the remaining 54% will be large projects. For agricultural photovoltaic projects, the government plans to set up a special bidding mechanism, and the specific plan is still to be determined.   In addition, PPE3 also sets production capacity targets for each link in the photovoltaic manufacturing industry chain by 2035, including 3-5GW of silicon materials, 3-5GW of silicon ingots and silicon wafers, and 5-10GW of cells and modules.   As a strategic roadmap for energy production and consumption in France from 2025 to 2035, PPE3 has been publicly solicited for comments on the official website of the Ministry of Ecological Transition, and the publicity period is from March 7 to April 5, 2025.   However, it is worth noting that the French government recently proposed to retroactively reduce the feed-in tariff (FIT) for rooftop photovoltaics, which has caused concerns in the photovoltaic industry.

Israel: Relaxing regulatory policies to accelerate the 1.6GW rooftop PV plan   The Israeli government is simplifying the approval process for rooftop PV projects to speed up the deployment of domestic PV systems and plans to add 100,000 PV systems by 2030.   Optimizing the approval process for residential PV to accelerate the rooftop PV plan   The country's Planning and Building Committee has approved the exemption of building permits required for PV system installations, no longer requiring certification by electrical engineers, but allowing any licensed electrician to provide compliance certificates to ensure that the system meets safety and regulatory requirements.   Previously, the Israeli government announced the "Rooftop PV Plan", to add 1.6GW of residential rooftop PV capacity, which is expected to cover 15% of residential buildings nationwide.   Small energy storage systems will also benefit   At the same time, the Israeli Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure is promoting a policy to extend the scope of building permit exemptions to small energy storage facilities March 11, 2025, the National Planning and Building Committee approved a regulatory amendment to exempt energy storage systems of 600kWh and below and covering no more than 5 square meters from construction permit requirements.   According to the ministry's calculations, such a system can supply electricity to a residential building with 10 apartments for 2 to 3 hours and can be used in agriculture, public and commercial buildings. The introduction of energy storage will extend the use time of renewable energy and provide protection in power outages or emergencies. In addition, the ministry emphasized that the advantage of energy storage systems is to extend the supply time of renewable energy and reduce electricity costs through peak storage.

In 2025, two major policies were implemented successively, bringing earth-shaking changes to distributed photovoltaic power generation. Among them, the "Management Measures for the Development and Construction of Distributed Photovoltaic Power Generation" (hereinafter referred to as the Management Measures) directly pointed out the pain points of distributed photovoltaic development, construction and management, while the "Notice on Deepening the Market-oriented Reform of New Energy Grid-connected Electricity Prices and Promoting the High-quality Development of New Energy" officially opened the curtain for the full entry of distributed photovoltaic power generation into the market.   Affected by the above new policies, what new changes and trends will distributed photovoltaic power generation usher in?   01 Rush to install   Under the influence of the new management policies and the new electricity price policies, there are two important time nodes for the development of distributed photovoltaic power generation. That is, "430" rush to access the grid in full and "531" rush to buy electricity prices. With the superposition of the two, a new round of rush to install will appear in the first half of 2025.   It is worth noting that after the rush to install, due to the different time of the introduction of mechanism electricity prices and mechanism electricity in various regions, and the profit model of incremental projects under the electricity price mechanism will be recalculated, the distributed photovoltaic power generation in the second half of the year may have a short window period and stagnation period, and the scale of new installed capacity for the whole year may still be similar to that of last year.   02 Price increase   Since February, there have been reports of PV module price increases of 2-3 cents/W, and the rush to install has further stimulated the motivation of enterprises to increase prices. It is understood that the current module prices of some first-tier enterprises are 0.71-0.78 yuan/W. At present, many companies have signed self-discipline conventions. Affected by this, the company's operating rate is under certain control, resulting in a shortage of some models of modules after the previous inventory sales. It is expected that as the rush to install approaches, the subsequent module prices will still have room for increase, or return to the 0.8X yuan/W era.   However, after the rush to install, whether the subsequent module prices will continue to rise still needs to consider overseas demand, enterprise production capacity control and other situations.   03 Household photovoltaics may be suspended   According to the new management policy, household photovoltaics are divided into natural person households and non-natural person households. Combined with the latest policy, after June 1, the grid-connected electricity of incremental projects (including household photovoltaic project...

Recently, the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration (EIA) predicted that by 2025, utility-scale solar capacity will reach 32.5GW, energy storage capacity will be slightly more than 18GW, wind power is expected to increase by 7.7GW, and fossil natural gas capacity will increase by 4.4GW.   The agency's latest preliminary monthly generator inventory report (EIA-860M) shows that the total new capacity in 2025 will reach about 63 GW, the highest annual installation in the United States. In contrast, according to EIA data, 48.6GW of utility-scale capacity was deployed in 2024, the highest total since 2002, when about 60GW of new capacity was connected to the grid.   Solar energy will account for 51.5% of all new installed capacity by 2025. Texas will lead the installation with 11.6GW of new solar installed capacity, accounting for nearly 36% of all new solar installed capacity. California is next with 2.9GW, while five other states (Indiana, Arizona, Michigan, Florida, and New York) are all expected to deploy more than 1GW of capacity.   Energy storage capacity is expected to grow significantly, with 18.2GW added. While the report does not provide details on storage duration, the two largest battery markets (California and Texas) typically deploy systems with four hours and two and a half hours of storage capacity, respectively.   Texas is expected to add 6.7GW of energy storage, followed by California at 4.3GW and Arizona at 3.6GW. These three states will account for more than 80% of all new battery storage capacity.   The two largest battery projects planned for 2025 have a capacity of 500MW each. One, located in Kern County, California, will be co-located with a 500MW solar farm, the largest plant planned this year. The second project, located in Wharton, Texas, will be paired with a 451.6MW solar facility, the second largest solar plant planned for 2025.   Data from the EIA’s Short-Term Energy Outlook shows that small-scale solar (residential, commercial, and industrial) will add 7 GW of capacity, bringing total distributed PV to 60.6 GW by the end of 2025. Combined with 32.5 GW of utility-scale capacity (42 GW dc), total solar module deployment this year could approach 50 GW.   The EIA initially projected that the U.S. would deploy more than 50 GW of solar capacity in 2024, and the agency’s November capacity report estimate remained unchanged. However, the latest data indicates that the EIA has lowered its 2024 capacity estimate by about 7 GW. This revision coincides with an expected surge in deployment in January 2025.   Meanwhile, the U.S. solar capacity is expected to reach nearly 50 GW in 2025.

Diplomatic and Military Dynamics of the Russia-Ukraine Conflict Complexly Escalate in Multiple Games On March 4, 2025, a series of diplomatic events surrounding the situation in Ukraine drew the international community's attention. President Zelensky's statement that he is willing to resign in exchange for NATO membership, along with additional military assistance from the United Kingdom and the suspension of U.S. military aid to Ukraine due to the breakdown of high-level U.S.-Ukrainian talks, have further complicated the diplomatic and military dynamics of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Zelensky re-emphasized during the March 2 summit in London that he would resign from the presidency if Ukraine could join NATO, saying that this would mean the fulfillment of his mission. Previously, Zelensky's visit to the United States was marked by a heated dispute with the Trump administration over negotiations on a mineral agreement, resulting in the cancellation of a joint U.S.-Ukrainian press conference and the failure to sign the agreement. U.S. Assistant for National Security Affairs Waltz hinted that Zelensky could be an obstacle to the peace talks, and top U.S. Republicans have pressured him to "show good faith negotiations." At the London summit, British Prime Minister Starmer announced £1.6 billion in export financing to Ukraine for the purchase of 5,000 British-made anti-aircraft missiles and a truce plan in conjunction with France, Canada, and other countries. Starmer said the aid was aimed at "peace through strength" while promoting the recovery of the British military industry. However, Hungarian Prime Minister Orban criticized the summit for "prolonging the conflict" and called for peace to be prioritized. And U.S.-Ukrainian relations continued to deteriorate due to the breakdown of negotiations on a mineral deal. on March 3, U.S. officials confirmed that the Trump administration had frozen funding for new weapons to the U.S. and suspended existing military aid, demanding that the U.S. side "demonstrate good faith for peace." Once the ban goes into effect, the problem of the U.S. military's "Patriot" missile stockpile will be further exacerbated. NATO Secretary General Rutte acknowledged that U.S.-made weapons are "vital" to Ukraine's early defense, and that Europe will have difficulty filling the gap in U.S. aid. The terms of Zelensky's resignation, linked to NATO's eastward expansion aspirations, highlight Ukraine's strategic dilemma in terms of security and sovereignty. While British military aid strengthens Ukraine's short-term defenses, a mechanism that relies on the freezing of Russian assets to repay the loan could be controversial under international law. The suspension of U.S. aid could weaken the intelligence and equipment advantage of the Ukrainian army, putting Europe at greater risk. Analysis points out that the conflict between Russia and Ukraine is gradually evolving into a proxy battlefield for the big powers, and the prospec...