Clauses · DFARS · Supply chain and sourcing
DFARS 252.225-7017 Photovoltaic Devices
Does the regulation require it to flow down?
No
The clause has no subcontract paragraph at all — it runs (a) definitions, (b) the statutory citation to section 846 of the FY2011 NDAA, (c) the restriction, and stops. Worse for a flow-down: every limb of (c) is conditioned on what 'the Contractor specified in its offer in the Photovoltaic Devices—Certificate provision of the solicitation'. A subcontractor that never submitted a 252.225-7018 certificate has no certified band, so the pasted clause has no operative content against it. Primes flow it down because the prime must control the origin of devices it will hand to DoD; the correct instrument is a device-origin requirement, not this clause verbatim
A clause can reach your subcontract without a mandate. Once it is in your document, it is a contract term all the same. The missing mandate is a fact about the regulation. It is not a ruling on your order.
Checked against acquisition.gov on 2026-08-05 · edition MAR 2024 · base v0.9.3 Read the text ↗
What it makes you produce
One item for your checklist.
Something somebody else has to issue you
The same day if the issuer is one of your own suppliers, months if it is an assessor or an underwriter.
The manufacturer's origin statement for each photovoltaic device, reaching substantial transformation in the higher value bands rather than a shipping address — evidence the prime weighs, not paper the clause names
DFARS 252.225-7017
When it is used
Much narrower than its title suggests. 225.7017-4(a): use it in solicitations, including FAR part 12 solicitations, for a contract expected to exceed the simplified acquisition threshold ($350k) that may be a covered contract — and 'covered contract' means an energy savings performance contract, a utility service contract, or a private housing contract awarded by DoD that will result in DoD ownership of photovoltaic devices by means other than DoD purchase as end products. If DoD is simply buying solar panels as a deliverable, this clause is the wrong instrument; Buy American (252.225-7001) or Trade Agreements (252.225-7021) governs instead. The restriction is by value band under (c): above the micro-purchase threshold but under $100,000, domestic only; $100,000 to $102,280 and $100,000 to $174,000 open progressively to Free Trade Agreement and qualifying country devices; at $174,000 or more, only U.S.-made, designated country, or qualifying country devices. Every band is keyed to what the contractor certified in 252.225-7018, Photovoltaic Devices—Certificate.
Read closely
(c) reads on the band a certificate committed to in the offer, so a supplier that filed no certificate has no band of its own and the pasted text has little to bite on. The clause reaches photovoltaic devices DoD ends up owning through an energy savings, utility service, or private housing contract rather than devices DoD buys, so a subcontract for supplies, parts or machining usually has no covered contract behind it. Domestic means manufactured in the United States; U.S.-made is looser and accepts substantial transformation, and the two are not interchangeable.
The 5 templates that name it, with the line
Source: acquisition.gov, DFARS 252.225-7017, 225.7017-2, 225.7017-3, 225.7017-4(a), and 212.301(f)(x)(K) (verified 2026-08-05)
This is research, not legal advice. It states what the regulation says about this clause and cites the paragraph behind it. It does not rule on your order, and it does not rule on whether a prime's markings are correct.