Solar Panels for Educational Projects Still Classifiable as Solar Panels, CBP Says

Solar panels used solely in educational settings should still be classified as solar panels, potentially subject to antidumping and countervailing duties, CBP said in a Sept. 25 ruling. Pitsco Education sought internal advice through the Center of Excellence and Expertise for Machinery on the classification of the solar panels and complementary components, such as solar-powered cars, that "impart an understanding of solar energy principles." Pitsco claimed that all the merchandise is properly classified in heading 9023 "as instruments or parts of models or apparatus designed for demonstrational purposes."

CBP doesn't dispute that the solar panels are used "as instruments or parts of models or apparatus designed for demonstrational purposes," it said. Still, such panels can't demonstrate solar energy alone, CBP said. "Only when attached to the motors of those items can they effectively illustrate to their users how solar energy is converted to propulsive or actuating power," it said. Without an "independent demonstrational value in their condition as imported," the panels can't be classified as “designed for demonstrational purposes,” CBP said in the ruling.

The agency also didn't dispute that the panels are used entirely in educational settings, such as "classrooms, science fairs, and science competitions." But that fact is "ultimately immaterial because the solar panels fail to satisfy a wholly separate criterion of the heading," CBP said. That means the solar panels are excluded from heading 9023, it said.

The company also argued that the solar panels can't be classified in Chapter 85 as panels of photovoltaic cells "because they are 'fundamentally different' from the types of solar panels 'contemplated by heading 8541,'" the agency said. Pitsco said the heading is meant for solar panels with higher voltage and amperage ratings and other attributes. "By its own plain language, however, the heading applies simply to panels of photovoltaic cells, whose sole defining feature is a capacity to convert light to energy," CBP said. "Nowhere in the [Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States], relevant [Explanatory Notes], or elsewhere is it indicated that solar panels of the heading must also include anything other than solar cells, meet certain output thresholds, or store the energy they generate."

While the component parts are classifiable in heading 9023 as demonstrational, the solar panels should be classified in subheading 8541.40.60, CBP said. That subheading is duty free, but "the subject solar panels may fall within the scope of antidumping and countervailing duty orders on 'crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells, whether or not assembled into modules' from the People’s Republic of China," CBP said. "We highly recommend that the importer obtain a scope ruling from the U.S. Department of Commerce, International Trade Administration (ITA), to determine whether the subject solar panels fall within the scope of the order."