Stop Treating Domestic Content Like a Checkbox

For the past year, the default mindset has been simple: pick your modules based on price and availability, design the system, and then ask a tax advisor whether you qualify for the domestic content bonus. That habit breaks down fast under the current IRS safe harbor framework.​Under updated guidance, solar projects are evaluated at the project level across three manufactured products—modules, inverters, and mounting—and each category is assigned a fixed percentage weight toward domestic content under the safe harbor table. Recent changes ramped up the share tied to modules and trackers while dialing back the contribution from inverters and racking, which means you simply cannot hit higher thresholds by swapping downstream equipment alone.​

Treat domestic content like any other constraint

Domestic content now sits in the same tier as other non‑negotiables: structural codes, electrical codes, PPA pricing, and schedule risk. If you ignore it until submittals, you are effectively redesigning the job under live fire.​

The bonus credit itself is structured around optimizing the mix of domestic and non‑domestic components within those IRS‑defined buckets, not just “buying a U.S. panel and calling it good.” For a lot of real projects, the smartest path is a blended strategy—domestic where the table gives you the most leverage, flexible where it doesn’t—so you capture the adder without overspending or blowing up the schedule.

A three‑step design workflow

Here’s a practical way to make domestic content a design input instead of a last‑minute scramble.

1. Lock the fundamentals first

Start with the decisions that are about physics and field conditions, not policy. Choose your racking or tracker system based on geotech, wind, snow, and constructability, and pick the inverter architecture that fits interconnection, O&M philosophy, and labor realities.​

Those choices define the physical character of the project for decades, and they should be made on engineering grounds—not just to chase a percentage in a Treasury table.​

2. Model domestic content early with DomesticIQ

Once you have a realistic baseline design, that’s where DomesticIQ comes in. DomesticIQ takes project details—system size, mounting type, racking choice, inverter configuration—and turns them into a project‑level domestic content estimate using the same safe harbor structure your tax team relies on.​

The value isn’t just the number, it’s the “what‑if” loop. DomesticIQ lets you test scenarios in real time: fixed‑tilt vs. single‑axis tracker, different racking manufacturers, alternate inverter mixes, and module concepts, and it shows how each change moves the domestic content percentage toward or away from the threshold for the relevant construction year. That turns domestic content from a mystery into a design dial your whole team can see.​

3. Dial in the final percentage with Domestic Choice

Once DomesticIQ shows you where the design lands, you still need a way to tune that last mile. Domestic Choice is built exactly for that: U.S.‑made modules with configurable domestic content so you can match the panel’s U.S. share to what the project actually needs.​

Instead of forcing a one‑size‑fits‑all “max domestic” SKU on every job, Domestic Choice lets you configure the bill of materials—wafer origin, cell manufacturing, glass, encapsulant, and other inputs—so the module’s domestic content level lines up with your DomesticIQ scenario. That gives you a clean way to close the gap between “almost there” and “over the line” without tearing up foundations or re‑engineering the electrical design.​

A scenario: from near‑miss to nailed

Picture a 100 MW ground‑mount tracker project. The developer does what many teams are doing today: domestic trackers, inverters, and a competitively priced module with some domestic content. On paper, it sounds like enough.​

But once the latest safe harbor percentages are applied, the project falls short. Under the new table, the big levers are the manufactured products—modules and the tracker system—while inverters contribute less to the overall domestic content math than many teams assume, and the structural steel piles and rebar must already be 100% U.S.‑made just to qualify in the first place. Instead of scrambling late, the team runs the design through DomesticIQ early, sees exactly how far their tracker and inverter decisions take them, and learns they’re still a few points shy of the target for their construction year.

From there, they move to Domestic Choice. Working off the DomesticIQ report, they specify a Domestic Choice configuration with the right combination of U.S. wafer‑to‑cell content and U.S. materials to push the project over the threshold—no redesign, no guessing. The result is a project that locks in the domestic content bonus and keeps its construction schedule intact.

Make domestic content a design input on your next job

If domestic content is still a checkbox at the end of your process, you are paying for it—in redesign hours, in risk, or in incentives left on the table. DomesticIQ turns it into a design input you can model on day one, and Domestic Choice gives you the manufacturing flexibility to build to that model with American‑made modules configured to your spec.​

For your next project, run the baseline design through DomesticIQ, then sit down with the Domestic Choice team and ask a simple question: “What module configuration gets this project over the line without slowing construction?” That’s how domestic content stops being a headache and starts being another tool in your kit.

See You at Intersolar in San Diego: Put Your Projects Through DomesticIQ Live

Intersolar is where a lot of 2026–2027 pipeline decisions will quietly get made, and our goal in San Diego is simple: give builders a place to do real work, not just collect swag. At the Imperial Star Solar booth, you can sit down with people who actually make the modules, run live domestic content scenarios, and walk away with a clearer plan to hit IRA incentives on projects that still pencil out.​

Bring a current or upcoming project and we’ll run it through DomesticIQ together, pressure‑test your domestic content strategy, and explore quick what‑if tweaks that can push you over the threshold without redesigning the whole job. From there, we’ll map a concrete Domestic Choice module configuration to that strategy, so you leave with specific next steps—not just a brochure.

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