Biggest choke points for scaling wafers and cells

Despite the dark cloud of federal policy hanging over the solar industry, skyrocketing load growth is driving demand. The question is whether supply can keep up.

In this episode, Shayle talks to Scott Moskowitz — VP of market strategy and public affairs at Qcells and board chair of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) — about the challenges of reshoring solar in the U.S.

They cover topics like:

• How supply chain resilience incentivize reshoring efforts
• The specific state of polysilicon, wafers, cells, and module reshoring
• Why resource “clustering” has been a boon for Chinese solar manufacturing
• Industry challenges around permitting solar
• Why American solar remains so much more expensive per watt than Chinese solar
• The threat of technological obsolescence to funding solar projects

Resources

• Catalyst: More 2026 trends: Solar costs, oil oversupply, and the startup slump
• Catalyst: Tumult in residential solar
• Open Circuit: Does residential solar have a bad product?
• Latitude Media: GlassPoint is back, and armed with global expansion plans
• Latitude Media: Tesla’s rooftop solar paradox
• Latitude Media: Can the US bring solar installation to below $2 per watt?

Credits: Hosted by Shayle Kann. Produced and edited by Max Savage Levenson. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is our executive editor.

Catalyst is brought to you by Uplight. Uplight activates energy customers and their connected devices to generate, shift, and save energy—improving grid resilience and energy affordability while accelerating decarbonization. Learn how Uplight is helping utilities unlock flexible load at scale at uplight.com.

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