The scale of Britain’s use of solar panels made by firms alleged to have used components made from the forced labour of minorities in China can be disclosed for the first time.
A critical component of Chinese solar panels is polysilicon that has regulalry been been made by the persecuted Uyghur minority trapped in forced labour schemes and subject to human rights abuses.
The map shows Chinese solar panels installed since 2021 when firm evidence of links between their production and forced labour became widely available, although there is no suggestion companies mentioned in this article were aware of the evidence.
Later that year, US President Biden brought in the Uyghur Forced Labour Prevention Act banning most solar panels made in Xinjiang on the presumption that they were tainted by “systematic abuses”, including “genocide” and “crimes against humanity”.
Campaigners have criticised the widespread installation of solar panels linked to human rights abuses, but many accept the difficulties organisations wishing to install green energy products have in tracing opaque Chinese supply chains.
In 2023 a report by Sheffield Hallam University claimed Jinko was one of six companies whose products had a “high risk” of being sourced through forced labour camps.
Manchester City installed thousands of Jinko solar panels across the Women’s Stadium and training facilitiesThey say they conduct their business and operations transparently and in accordance with the principles in its Code of Business Conduct and Ethics which, among others, focuses on the commitment to “No Forced Labour and No Child Labour”.
A green transition on the ‘broken backs of Uyghur slaves’
Last week, growing concerns over Britain’s use of Chinese panels with links to Uyghur oppression forced Energy Secretary Ed Miliband into banning them from being used by the state-funded Great British Energy company unless it can “ensure that slavery and human trafficking is not taking place” in its business or supply chains.
IPAC’s senior analyst Chung Ching Kwong believes The i Paper’s disclosures are a conservative estimate of the UK’s use of such tainted technology, because of the lack of transparency about the original source of materials used in many panels.
According to the International Energy Agency, the country manufactures more than 80 per cent of global solar panels and it is estimated that half of these are still being made with material sourced from the Xinjiang region.
Her report stated: “None of the companies that were engaged in state-sponsored labour transfers in 2021 has announced any changes to its recruitment methods or shown any resistance to participation in the PRC (Peoples Republic of China) Government’s programmes. Indeed, since that time, the PRC Government’s labour transfer programme has only increased in scale and the pressure on companies to absorb the workers the state deemed to be surplus remains high.”
Cheltenham and Newmarket racecourses did not respond although there is nothing to suggest they knew about any alleged link to forced labour.
Cheltenham Racecourse was fitted with solar panels made by JA solar (Photo: David Davies/PA Wire)In January, the US banned a subsidiary of JA Solar from shipping goods to the country under its forced labour legislation. The company did not respond to requests for a comment but it’s understood JA Solar has taken concrete steps to avoid any exposure to forced labour in its supply chain, regular audits its suppliers and has heavily invested in its traceability system.
The UK formed the Solar Stewardship Initiative (SSI) with trade organisations in a bid to tackle human rights challenges within the global solar supply chain including “rigorously” auditing some Chinese sites. Trini Solar and JA Solar are members. The latter firm was suspended in January after the US banned panels made by one of its subsidiaries but was reinstated after the SSI concluded its supply practices had changed.
The i Paper approached all six Chinese solar panel firms for comment. Only Jinko responded.
Some Chinese firms have criticised Sheffield Hallam’s report, claiming it disregards corporate due diligence policies.
She said: “A simple attestation that forced labor has been excluded simply isn’t enough to ensure that modules are in fact free and clear of forced labor.”
She said: “What we were seeing is many of the big solar companies… essentially creating one clean supply chain for the US to meet the requirements there but then they were not having to take those same steps in other markets globally meaning that the UK market was opening itself up as a dumping ground.”
What the companies say
Jon Brooks, the managing director of a plastic moulding business in Bournemouth said the company “invested heavily” in solar panels to shrink its carbon footprint. He said they used a respected UK contractor who claims to have excluded slavery violations from its supply chain to install the panels in 2022 and admitted that they hadn’t considered the possible links to forced labour.
Links between solar panel production and Uyghur forced labour camps have been known since 2021 (Photo: Wiktor Szymanowicz/Future Publishing)
The Shadow Security Minister Alicia Kearns said: “It is sadly no surprise so many sites across Britain host solar panels made by companies with alleged links to Uyghur forced labour.
A Government spokesperson said:”We are committed to stamping out modern slavery. The Procurement Act 2023, which came into force on 24 February this year, significantly increases our powers to deal with modern slavery in procurement, including banning suppliers from contracts where there is evidence of forced labour in their supply chain.
All company responses to questions about their solar panels and alleged links to Chinese slave labour can be viewed here.
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