The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) has approved a new American National Standard developed in partnership with the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA).
The standard, called ANSI/SEIA 101, is intended to enhance traceability of the solar supply chain and help businesses comply with U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s traceability requirements.
The standard creates a rubric for manufacturers and importers to follow to trace product origins from raw materials to finished goods. The supply chain standard applies to both companies and products, supporting solar developers and manufacturers throughout every facet of supply chain mapping and tracking.
A spokesperson for SEIA told pv magazine USA the standards were developed with Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) traceability requirements in mind.
ANSI/SEIA 101 is based on real-world examples of solar product shipments that were detained and released by Customs officials and includes input from numerous stakeholders, including manufacturers, developers, and third-party auditors.
“The U.S. solar and storage industry is deeply committed to operating with the highest ethical standards,” said SEIA president and CEO Abigail Ross Hopper. “As we expand domestic manufacturing across the solar and storage supply chain, this standard will help ensure that every solar and storage product installed in America reflects that commitment.”
Between import tariffs, antidumping and countervailing duty laws, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), and other requirements, there is a complex web of U.S. trade enforcement importers must navigate to reach the U.S. market. The SEIA standard serves as a guide through the complex environment.
Clean Energy Associates called UFLPA “one of the greatest threats to the U.S. solar and battery markets.”
It is a law that specifically applies a legal prohibition on importing goods made with forced labor to products suspected of having inputs from the Chinese region of Xinjiang.
As of this April, under the UFLPA, $3 billion worth of “electronics” have been detained since June 2022. Based on conversations with suppliers and buyers, CEA said it believes that PV modules represent the vast majority of those detentions.
(Read: “Tariffs the least of U.S. solar market’s worries”)
Earlier this year, ANSI approved three SEIA standards on consumer protection. This includes operations and maintenance and residential and small commercial installation. In addition to these four approved standards, SEIA is developing 7 more industry-wide standards that cover a range of issues, including installation and project decommissioning. Find more on SEIA standards here.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.