Xingwang Township Photovoltaic Solar Panels

Will Xinjiang & China produce solar panels?

Xinjiang will produce about half of the polysilicon in these panels, based on BNEF projections, and China will account for more than 80% of the overall supply. But consumers can’t track the provenance of their panels, since raw materials from multiple factories mix together along the solar supply chain.

Does Xinjiang use forced labor to make solar panels?

Allegations have been raised before that forced labor in Xinjiang has been used to produce polysilicon, a key component for making solar panels. But this latest research indicates that the practice is also used in the mining and processing of quartz, the raw material at the very start of the solar panel supply chain.

Does the Xinjiang solar industry have a labor transfer program?

Picarsic’s team in January released an analysis of the Xinjiang solar industry’s ties to the government’s labor transfer program. Horizon’s findings dovetail with many of the documents retrieved by Zenz, as does an October report by S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Is Xinjiang a good place for solar energy?

Xinjiang alone produces nearly half of the world’s solar-grade polysilicon, and is home to factories for some of the industry’s biggest players. Meanwhile, many countries are betting on solar as a critical form of renewable energy as they work to transition away from more polluting power sources.

Why do we need to monitor photovoltaic power development in China?

Particularly, in China, the number and scale of photovoltaic (PV) power stations have grown unprecedentedly in the last decade. There is an urgent need to monitor the PV power development in order to accurately estimate national renewable potentials and understand the ecological impacts.

Does China have a spatial map of PV power stations?

Although some researchers released several PV power station maps, most only met a medium resolution of 30 meters 9, 10. There thus still lacks a national map of China’s PV power stations with a higher spatial resolution (i.e., 10 meters) that could provide a global understanding of PV’s spatial deployment patterns.