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Commerce to Consider New Off-Grid Panel Exemption From Solar Cells, Products Orders

The Commerce Department will consider a potential new exemption from antidumping and countervailing duties for certain small, low-wattage, off-grid solar cells attached to an aluminum extrusion, it said in a trio of notices initiating changed circumstances reviews.

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Lutron Electronics requested the partial revocation, and the American Alliance for Solar Manufacturing, which represents those in favor of the relevant AD/CVD orders, doesn't oppose it. The exemptions would apply to the AD/CVD orders on cystalline silicon photovoltaic cells from China (A-570-979/C-570-980), as well as the AD/CVD orders on solar products from China (A-570-010/C-570-011) and the AD order on solar products from Taiwan (A-583-853).

If Commerce decides to grant the request, it will add the following exemption to the scopes of the five AD/CVD orders listed above:

"Also excluded from the scope of these investigations are off-grid CSPV panels in rigid form, with or without a glass cover, permanently attached to an aluminum extrusion that is an integral component of an automation device that controls natural light, whether or not assembled into a fully completed automation device that controls natural light, with the following characteristics:

"1. A total power output of 20 watts or less per panel;

"2. A maximum surface area of 1,000 cm2 per panel;

"3. Does not include a built-in inverter for powering third party devices."

Commerce will consider whether “substantially all” domestic producers (i.e., representing at least 85% of U.S. production) support the proposed exemption, after which it will issue the preliminary results of this changed circumstances review.