Originally Published in Law360, February 21, 2012

Last year in January 2011, the president signed the 2011 National Defense Authorization Act (Pub. L. No. 111-383, Section 846), which included a “Buy American” requirement for photovoltaic devices being purchased by the U.S. Department of Defense. Twelve months later, the DOD issued an interim rule to implement this new requirement. See 76 Fed. Reg. 18858 (Dec. 20, 2011).

The interim rule appears to be straightforward, implementing exceptions and manufacturing requirements with which most companies are already familiar under the Buy American Act or the Trade Agreements Act, but there is some fine print of which all companies selling photovoltaic devices to the DOD should be aware.