EIRP U.S.-Korea Energy Series – Working Paper No. 1 (U.S. Solar)

In this working paper in EIRP’s U.S.-Korea Energy Series, David Hart, a professor of public policy at George Mason University and nonresident fellow at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, sets out a strategy for developing America’s solar photovoltaic (PV) supply chains in partnership with U.S. allies including South Korea.

In “Diversify, Domesticate, and Disrupt: Strengthening America’s Nascent Effort to Build a Resilient and Robust Solar PV Supply Chain,” Hart contends solar PV can play a major role in achieving both the U.S. and South Korea’s climate and energy goals. However, he argues, over-reliance on China-based supply chains leave the U.S., South Korea, and others vulnerable to “disruption and predation” as well as undermining innovation. Although the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 substantially improved the outlook for solar PV, Hart writes, more work is necessary to rectify supply chain imbalances.

Hart recommends the U.S. create an integrated strategy to strengthen its solar PV supply chains. At the center of such a strategy should be creating technologically superior domestic PV manufacturing in collaboration with international trade partners like South Korea, Hart urges. He concludes that while the strategy would impose short-run, long-run benefits of reducing supply chain risk and sparking PV technology innovation would outweigh them.

Read the report here.

“Diversify, Domesticate, and Disrupt: Strengthening America’s Nascent Effort to Build a Resilient and Robust Solar PV Supply Chain” is the first in a series of EIRP working papers on U.S.-Korea Clean Energy. You can read a counterpart paper on South Korea’s solar industry here. Subscribe here to stay up-to-date on the latest EIRP news and analysis.