US manufacturing poised to meet new inverter demand following FCC ban on foreign power inverters

With a market heavily reliant on imported power inverters, the US solar market will have to shift rapidly to meet new FCC rules banning new foreign inverter products from approval and sale. However, manufacturers have announced plans for more than 100 GW ac of US PV/PCS inverter manufacturing capacity by the end of 2027. If materialized, project owners should have safe alternatives, albeit at a premium price, according to Wood Mackenzie analysis.

Over the past ten years, more than 200 GW ac of PV inverters have been delivered for commercial and industrial and utility-scale projects within the US. More than 90% of these products were imported, with more than 70 GW coming from Chinese-headquartered manufacturers, mostly delivered from Southeast Asian factories. Chinese vendor dominance has grown in recent years, comprising nearly 50% of US inverter market share in 2024 and 2025.

"The FCC's intent here is clear. The US government determined that the US’s reliance on foreign inverters poses a national security risk, citing both cybersecurity and economic concerns. But the ban's current definition of 'power inverters', focused on wireless communications, leaves real questions about how broadly it will apply, particularly for utility-scale central inverters that operate over wired connections," said Joe Shangraw, research analyst at Wood Mackenzie. “Future guidance from the FCC will be crucial to understand the full extent of this ban. Leading manufacturers are notifying clients that they believe their products will not fall under the scope of this ban, while project owners are concerned that their existing inverters could be blocked from receiving critical firmware updates.”

A supply chain shift will have consequences, raising average inverter prices in the US in 2027 as procurement moves away from lower-cost foreign products toward domestic alternatives that carry higher costs for parts, labor and manufacturing. Longer term, Wood Mackenzie expects prices to moderate as domestic manufacturing scales and competition increases, though the phase-out of 45X manufacturing production tax credits from 2030 onwards will add renewed upward pressure, particularly for residential and commercial inverter segments.

"The price premium for domestic inverters is a real consideration for project owners, but it provides supply chain certainty from not only this FCC ban, but from any future policy that could further restrict imports," Shangraw added. "If this proves to be a major market shift, the US is better positioned now to meet new domestic demand than ever. We forecast the domestic PV/PCS inverter manufacturing market will be able to deliver more than 100 GW ac of capacity by the end of 2027."