Solar Panel Availability with the Solar Tax Credit Ending in 2025

The solar.com team has been carefully tracking the implications of the One Big Beautiful Bill for the residential solar industry. Given the rush of homeowners who are trying to get their projects installed before the end of the year, to ensure tax credit eligibility, we’ve been closely tracking installer backlogs and equipment availability.

The One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) is a massive piece of legislation with many parts. For more information on how it impacts residential solar, check out Solar.com’s One Big Beautiful Bill Resource Center:

• The OBBB is Now Law: Here’s How It Impacts Solar
• Frequently Asked Questions About Solar and the OBBB
• Homeowner’s Guide to Going Solar in the OBBB Rush
• What You Need to Know About Leasing Solar post-OBBB

Solar Panel Availability: 2025 Updates

As of mid-August, in addition to the historic rush to go solar before tax credits expire, we’ve seen two major updates on the solar panel equipment supply from leading manufacturers. 

Hanwha Q Cells has disclosed that its imports are under scrutiny by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) for allegations of forced labor in its supply chain. Reporting on this topic from the press indicates that CBP has been detaining cells, which were intended to be made into solar panels at Q Cells’ factory in Georgia. Until Q Cells can resume shipments to the US, this problem will compound as they fall further behind their production plans. 

REC, the other dominant supplier to the US residential segment, and a leading supplier of our best panel of 2025, notified the market that due to a small fire at their manufacturing facility in Singapore, their production was offline for approximately a month. While not as significant an event as Q Cells, this unscheduled downtime has also compressed lead times for REC product. 

Battery and Inverter Availability

On a positive update, Tesla Powerwall availability has eased into the summer, and while still not as accessible as batteries from suppliers like Enphase or Franklin, there is broader availability. 

For inverters, there have been no noticeable availability issues from Enphase or SolarEdge.

Safe Harboring May Change Dynamics Quickly

The industry is currently on edge awaiting guidance from Treasury on how and if solar equipment can be “safe harbored” to preserve access to the tax credit for PPA and lease products. 

Depending on how the Treasury guidance is issued, this could cause the industry to move rapidly to purchase product to “start” projects to preserve access to the tax credit into the future. Given the broad issues in solar panel availability outlined above, it’s likely safe harboring will be done with inverters, which could starve out availability for projects.

Is there a shortage of solar panels?

Given the tax credit rush and the supply chain issues described above, there are shortages for certain high-demand solar panels. Some homeowners may be better off going with their second or third choice of panel in order to get their project installed by the December 31, 2025 deadline to claim the tax credit.

For instance, if REC 460W panels are unavailable, it’s well worth switching to REC 450W or another module that is readily available to your installer.

What Can Homeowners Do About Limited Solar Panel Availability in 2025?

The best thing you can do is to start your project today. 

While there are no guarantees, in some markets installations can still occur in 2025 if contracted before the end of August. The solar.com team is working with installation partners and monitoring equipment availability to do our best to derisk projects.