Biden’s Clean Energy Executive Action

What You Need To Know About President Biden’s Clean Energy Manufacturing Announcement

Today, President Biden issued an Executive Order to spur domestic clean energy manufacturing and renewable energy construction projects all while strengthening the electric grid, cutting energy costs for families and tackling the climate crisis. Together, these actions will help to clear backlogs in the clean energy project pipeline in the short-term and to build a robust manufacturing supply chain for the critical technologies of the 21st century right here in the U.S.  

1. Shoring Up Manufacturing Of Clean Energy Technologies Via The Defense Production Act. Biden’s Executive Order authorizes the Department of Energy to use the Defense Production Act (DPA) to ramp up the manufacturing of five clean energy technologies here in the U.S. By deploying the DPA, the DOE can accelerate the production of parts for solar panels, building insulation, heat pumps, equipment for making and using clean electricity-generated fuels, and critical power grid infrastructure such as transformers.
2. Boosting The Solar Supply Chain And Supporting Clean Energy Construction Projects. Consistent with his push to dramatically increase renewable energy production, Biden’s announcement places a 24-month tariff exemption on solar modules and cells from four Asian countries. The pause on tariffs provides a short-term boost to the solar components supply chain, ensuring the construction of existing projects while domestic manufacturing is shored up through the DPA. 
3. Making Energy-Saving Technology More Accessible. By including energy-saving technologies like heat pumps and building insulation in the DPA authorization, Biden’s order will help make the latest energy-saving technology more widely available and affordable, helping families save money on their household energy costs. Heat pumps can reduce electricity use for heating and cooling, saving consumers thousands of dollars in annual energy costs. The installation of heat pumps also increases home values in the U.S. by an average of $10,400 to $17,000.
4. Spurring Additional Solar Manufacturing Capacity. Biden’s order includes federal procurement measures to spur additional domestic solar manufacturing capacity, stimulating demand for up to a gigawatt (GW) of domestically produced solar modules in the near term, and up to 10 GW over the next decade from U.S. government demand alone. The U.S. is now on track to triple its solar manufacturing capacity by 2024, and expansions to domestic solar manufacturing capacity announced under the Biden administration will grow current capacity by 15 GW for a total of 22.5 GW by the end of his first term. This is enough for more than 3.3 million homes to switch to clean solar energy every year.
5. Increasing The Speed And Efficiency Of Domestic Clean Electricity Sales To The Federal Government. Biden announced the development of master supply agreements for domestically manufactured solar systems to increase the speed and efficiency of domestic clean electricity sales to the U.S. government, in addition to “super preferences” which will apply domestic content standards for federal procurement of solar systems.