Solar panels

For the early adopters of rooftop solar panels, maintaining and repairing faulty panels is a costly challenge of its own.

Shipments of solar panels reached a record high last year, though most were imported. They're also getting cheaper.

The Inflation Reduction Act adds new tax credits for home energy efficient tech.

The federal Energy Information Administration predicts that more than half of the new capacity added to the electric grid this year will be solar.

(They'll have to be made here in America.)

The president also ruled out solar tariffs for two years on several Asian countries the U.S. imports solar panels from.

"Everything is just a constant pivot," says Gretchen Blough, a customs broker in Erie, Pennsylvania.

"We don't really have a plan without the Build Back Better Act to stop the warming," a UC Santa Barbara professor says.

Some say keeping Trump-era levies on foreign-made panels and cells will help the U.S. meet Biden's domestic goals for renewable energy.

Three years after Hurricane Maria destroyed Puerto Rico's electric grid, the island is still dealing with unreliable service and intermittent power outages, especially in rural areas.