Solar panels are going up on rooftops and fields across America at a record pace, and the hidden upstream step most homeowners never see is now at the center of a tariff battle that could reshape every panel price in the country

Solar panels are everywhere now. What a solar panel is actually made of, layer by layerStart with sand. Yet the United States still imports the vast majority of its solar panels, with dependence concentrated on China and countries that serve as intermediaries for Chinese manufacturing. That single gap is why roughly 84% of solar panel imports into the US during the fourth quarter of 2023 came from four Southeast Asian countries. Combined AD and CVD exposure reached up to roughly 3,530% for Cambodia (125.37% AD plus 3,403.96% CVD), up to roughly 1,002% for Thailand (202.90% AD plus 799.55% CVD), up to roughly 814% for Vietnam (271.28% AD plus 542.64% CVD), and up to roughly 250% for Malaysia (81.24% AD plus 168.80% CVD), according to the Commerce Department’s final determination.