If ever there should be an industry that supports the use of Made-in-America products in construction, it would be the federal government. For decades, the government had a kind of “Buy American” provision for projects funded with federal dollars. More recently, the Build America Buy America (BABA) Act of 2021 requires that all iron, steel, manufactured products, and building materials purchased for projects with federal funds must be made in the United States. Manufactured products are required to have 55% of their production costs sourced from America.
In August 2025, a 13 MW solar project was completed for the US Army Garrison Fort Polk in Louisiana. Credit: Angie Thorne, Fort Polk public affairs office
Although the domestic market for solar energy production has grown recently, meeting the US 55% threshold for manufactured products is still a tall order – for solar panels, inverters and batteries. There are exemption options for the BABA law when domestic products are not available, and government agencies request exemptions when it comes to solar installations. The Ministry of Energy has applied for a waiver from BABA for the use of auto-shutoff inverters for a project in Alaska, citing non-availability domestically. The US military was exemption granted in September 2025 based on the unavailability of domestically assembled solar panels for a project at the National Guard Readiness Center in Reno, Nevada.
While it is sometimes impossible to use only American components in federal solar projects, there is a more concentrated effort to at least avoid using Chinese products. The entire solar industry is trying to understand the Foreign Entity of Concern (FEOC) rules for private projects, and some federal agencies must now adhere to the non-Chinese requirement as well.
But figuring out those guidelines is still a work in progress – for everyone.
Solar trends in government
Before Donald Trump took office again, the federal government encouraged the adoption of solar energy and storage within its reach. President Joe Biden’s Federal Sustainability Plan 2021 called on federal facilities to use 100% carbon-free electricity by 2030. The Department of Defense, which consistently consumes 80% of all energy within the US government, quickly began approving solar and storage projects. Solar energy was installed in training centers, Veterans Affairs hospitals, garrisons, military housing and even considered for the Pentagon.
The 1.1 MW floating solar panel at the Fort Bragg US Army base in North Carolina. Credit: Sharilyn Wells, Fort Bragg Garrison Public Affairs Office
The U.S. Army Base Fort Bragg in North Carolina is home to the largest floating solar project in the Southeast. The 1.1 MW solar panels on top of Big Muddy Lake at Camp Mackall were completed by Duke Energy and Ameresco in 2022. The project includes a 2 MWh Tesla energy storage system and hundreds of LG silicon solar panels, which were assembled in the United States at the time of installation (LG has since exited the solar industry).
Still, that didn’t stop then-Congressman Michael Waltz (R-Florida). in 2023 of interrogating Sec. of U.S. Army Christine Wormuth during a House Armed Services Committee meeting on the panel supplier for the Fort Bragg installation. Sec. Wormuth incorrectly surmised that “since most solar panels are made in China, there is a good chance those panels are made in China.”
Although the Fort Bragg installation used American-assembled LG solar panels and met existing BABA Act guidelines or received appropriate waivers, there is still an ill-informed Chinese paranoia within Congress when it comes to solar energy equipment. Bombshell reporting from Reuters in 2025 only heightened concerns when it appeared to confirm the existence of rogue Chinese communications equipment in solar inverters.
Members of Congress are still using this cybersecurity threat in documents, despite the Department of Energy later which showed that no definitive evidence had been found of malicious software in US solar projects using Chinese inverters. National laboratories inspected about 30 inverters and found two situations where communications differed from official documentation but were not malicious or intentional, the DOE said.
Again, all of these solar projects met the procurement requirements of the BABA Act, but Made-in-America requirements for U.S. solar projects have taken a backseat to “No-China.”
FEOC Rules for the FBI
On December 18, 2025, Trump signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2026, which authorizes credits for the national security programs of the Department of War (formerly Department of Defense) and the Department of Energy. This law includes a section that prohibits the War Department from purchasing solar panels or inverters from foreign entities of concern – China, Iran, North Korea and Russia.
In 2025, solar panels will be installed on a parking deck at the Louisville VA Medical Center. Credit: Michael Maddox, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Louisville District
As with BABA, the FEOC provision can be overruled if there are no alternative sources of panels or inverters, or if the Sec. of War determines that there is no threat to national security from its use. This only applies to projects purchased directly by the War Department and not to contracts funded by third parties.
While the private sector is still awaiting FEOC guidance from the Treasury Department, the War Department has not explained how to comply with its own FEOC provision in the NDAA. And Congress is getting restless.
On January 14, ten Republican members of Congress wrote to Sec. of the war Pete Hegseth with concerns that the department had yet to “establish a policy that addresses the national security risks associated with the use of Chinese energy infrastructure in the department’s energy resilience efforts.” The members of Congress, led by Representative Stephanie Bice of Oklahoma, cited the now-dismissed claim that Chinese spyware is being used in solar inverters. They said solar systems with quick shutdown capabilities could be activated remotely by an “embedded adversary.” The congressmen called for an immediate ban on the direct purchase of Chinese solar panels, as well as new policies to ban the installation of panels and inverters from FEOCs. Hegseth and the War Department have yet to respond.
Until guidance is provided, government agencies will continue to build solar and storage projects with available products. In the above-mentioned exemption from the Dept. of Energy BABA have requested project engineers to use SMA inverters for the Alaska project that requires automatic shutdown. The German inverter brand is also said to meet the supposed FEOC requirements, showing that many non-Chinese options are already used in the market.
