Building Smarter: Domestic Manufacturing, Modular Design, and Policy Reality

By Zoë Astill, BiogasWorld

As the renewable natural gas (RNG) sector scales to meet North America’s decarbonization goals, a new challenge has emerged: how to build more locally, efficiently, and compliantly.

“Building local is the new mandate, but at what cost?”

In BiogasWorld’s recent webinar, “The US Biogas & RNG Market: Navigating 2025 and Beyond,” experts such as Alan Lebanc (ABB), Prabhu Rao (Ivys Adsorption), Scott McKay (Fournier Industries), and John Dinneen (Mead & Hunt) discussed how domestic policy requirements are reshaping the economics of RNG development in the U.S.

Driven by the Build America, Buy America (BABA) Act and escalating tariffs, developers are navigating a complex supply chain landscape, one defined equally by regulation and resource limitations. Rising steel prices, limited U.S. component availability, new tariff structures, and lead-time uncertainty are increasingly determining project feasibility. Today, “building smarter” is no longer just a matter of engineering excellence, but strategic adaptation.

Policy Meets Practice

Passed under the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the BABA Act requires federally funded projects to use U.S.-made iron, steel, and manufactured products. While the goal is to stimulate domestic manufacturing, the policy is having a real impact on project design, budgets, and timelines.

From developers to EPCs, one question repeats across the industry: How do we stay compliant without compromising efficiency?

This theme aligns directly with what ABB is hearing from clients. According to ABB:

Uncertainty around delivery and OPEX is shaping early-stage planning more than ever before. As tariffs continue to fluctuate, stainless steel, motors, drives, and control systems, all essential components, face shifting costs and availability. These pressures force developers to think more strategically about sourcing, partnerships, and system design. This is where modular construction is emerging as a defining advantage.

The Rise of Modular Construction

Modularization is becoming a foundational strategy for navigating BABA, tariffs, and project risk.

Kingsbury* and Ivys’ Adsorption both emphasized this shift during the webinar. Prabhu Rao of Ivys highlighted that the industry’s problem isn’t technology, it’s execution:

By fabricating systems off-site, under controlled conditions, with local labour integration and domestic materials, strengthening the regional supply chain, developers can reduce cost overruns, accelerate delivery, and eliminate variability.

This approach not only supports BABA compliance but also enables EPCs and technology providers to collaborate more closely with regional partners, reducing shipping, improving service response times, and ensuring regulatory alignment.

Modularity, when paired with regionalized manufacturing, creates predictable CAPEX and more resilient construction schedules, two critical advantages in a policy-driven market.

Balancing Costs, Tariffs, and Compliance

Tariffs are increasingly influencing project economics, especially for equipment traditionally sourced from Europe.

Ivys addressed the challenge directly:

This is pushing OEMs and integrators to redesign supply chains around North American trade frameworks. The winners in this transition will be companies that can: 

• Shift component manufacturing to the U.S., Canada, or Mexico
• Assemble systems locally to meet BABA and tariff boundaries
• Redesign equipment to qualify for CUSMA rules of origin
• Integrate modular approaches to reduce site work and import reliance 

Hybrid supply strategies, mixing domestic sourcing with North American components, are becoming common, enabling developers to maintain compliance while controlling cost risk.

Collaboration as the Competitive Edge

The next decade of RNG development will be defined not only by technology innovation but by strategic collaboration. ABB, Ivys, Kingsbury*, and Fournier all emphasized that policy is accelerating a transition toward integrated regional value chains. Developers who coordinate early with equipment suppliers, EPCs, and local manufacturers will be best positioned to:

• Manage BABA requirements
• Navigate tariff exposure
• Standardize modular designs
• Reduce CAPEX uncertainty
• Accelerate commissioning
• Strengthen carbon-intensity performance 

“Policy sets the stage, but collaboration drives performance.”

As BiogasWorld continues to highlight through its community, marketplace, and webinars, the path forward for RNG isn’t just clean, it’s connected, modular, efficient, and increasingly regionalized.

Coming next: In our next article, we’ll explore how biogas is powering the future of renewable energy demand across North America and what innovations are reshaping plant efficiency and carbon-intensity scores.

Want more insights? Check out the webinar here: US Biogas & RNG Market: Navigating 2025 & Beyond

*Kingsbury provided their insights after the actual webinar to participate in the “US Biogas & RNG Market: Navigating 2025 & Beyond” article series.