The project got Vision News Center, This Pulitzer Centerwith Open Technology Fund.

Solar energy has established a good reputation, saving the planet by providing clean energy. However, the bottom line of the industry is dirty: its main components rely heavily on Xinjiang (in China, this area has become synonymous with forced labor by Muslim minorities).

In the past four years, China has arrested more than 1 million people. Detention facility network The entire Xinjiang region.Many of these camps Including factory A place where Muslim minorities are forced to work. The solar industry is extremely dependent on parts and materials imported from the region, where tight government surveillance makes it almost impossible for outside observers to assess whether people are working as they wish. However, there are few alternative suppliers for the components required by the US solar industry.

This is a special problem for polysilicon, which is a metallic gray crystal form of an essential element for the manufacture of solar cells, which can convert light into energy. In 2016, only 9% of the world’s solar-grade polysilicon came from Xinjiang. But according to industry analyst Johannes Bernreuter, it will account for about 45% of the world’s supply by 2020.

At least one major Chinese polysilicon manufacturer maintains close ties with the state-controlled paramilitary group Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC). Last year, the US government imposed sanctions on XPCC to help Beijing carry out large-scale Muslim detentions. The United States cited evidence that the cotton was produced using forced labor and therefore banned the cotton.

Another major polysilicon producer in China stated that it is in agreement with “vocational schoolIn Xinjiang, this is a red flag because the Chinese government has long used this term as a euphemism for detention camps.

The organization’s general counsel, John Smirnow, said that the Solar Energy Industry Association, which represents US solar companies, opposed Xinjiang’s “condemned” human rights violations and “encouraged” companies to move their supply chains out of the region.

He said: “We have no indication that solar energy is directly implicated, but there are reports that we want to ensure that forced labor never becomes part of the solar energy supply chain.”

However, after President-elect Joe Biden was ready to take office and promised to improve the clean energy infrastructure of the United States, the US solar industry faced a choice: ignore the risk of human rights violations or develop expensive New alternatives are more polluting forms of energy production.

China dominates The global polysilicon industry afterwards Impose tariffs on polysilicon imports From the United States, South Korea and the European Union, and increased domestic production, Clear retaliation for tariffs imposed by the United States,Year 2014. China is also one of the world’s largest consumers of polysilicon, which means that competition from many companies outside of China has become increasingly unpopular because it is no longer cost-effective to export polysilicon in China. In the following years, China’s polysilicon industry has flourished, not only in Xinjiang, but also in other regions such as Sichuan in the southwest.

Bernreuter said: “Most of the supply chain is concentrated in China, while most of the rest of Southeast Asia is in factories owned by Chinese companies.” “There is no other choice in the supply chain.”

But in recent months, imports from Xinjiang have aroused the anger of American lawmakers.

In the last Congress, the delegates Considered A bill that will ban all commodities in the region, this legislation may be restored to take effect at the upcoming meeting.House bill Targeted “Poverty Alleviation” Program Make Xinjiang Muslims work in factories and farms far from home.

Since the end of 2016, the Chinese government has launched a campaign that includes mass detention, digital surveillance, indoctrination, and forced labor of about 13 million Muslim minorities in Xinjiang Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other remote areas. . Experts say that non-Chinese people who come to Xinjiang are often closely monitored or accompanied by the police, so it is difficult for companies to audit their forced labor supply chain.

“It is almost impossible to confidently assess the working conditions in Xinjiang just because it is almost impossible to hire a competent assessor. Then, due to surveillance, their ability to interview workers (especially Uyghur workers) is limited. .” Amy Lehr, director of the Human Rights Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC report BuzzFeed News tells the area about forced labor.

However, if the U.S. Customs and Border Protection suspects the use of forced labor, it already has the legal power to prohibit imports from the region.The agency stopped transporting human hair from Xinjiang in July According to the report The expansion is carried out using prison labor. In December, CBP Seized goods Xinjiang’s cotton and computer accessories. this week, It is forbidden Import tomato and cotton products from so-called “slave labor” in the region.

“Even if there is no regional ban, it is possible for the solar panel company (CBP) to review the Xinjiang-related forced labor risks in its solar supply chain,” he said.

The Horizon Consulting Research Group said in a report that Xinjiang’s polysilicon often landed in the United States.

The report said: “These goods entered the United States directly or indirectly from China, and entered the United States from the United States in several other countries (including Thailand, Malaysia, South Korea, Singapore, and Vietnam),” the report concluded, “exposure to forced labor. Prevalent.”, including “solar panels imported and installed in the United States.”

Forced labor is usually used for manufacturing jobs that do not require specialized skills. Some of these types of tasks (for example, taking apart tubes of materials) are used to produce polysilicon.

Industry experts said that if the United States does ban polysilicon imports from China, then US-based companies will have enough capacity to make up for the shortage, but will face higher costs and other problems in the supply chain.

On the one hand, other parts used in solar panels are also dominated by Chinese manufacturing. Once polysilicon is made, it is cut into small pieces called “wafers.” The vast majority of wafer manufacturers are located in China. And compared with other parts of China, it is cheaper to manufacture polysilicon in Xinjiang, Xinjiang companies can get large subsidies from the government, and the cost of electricity provided by coal-fired power plants is usually lower than wages in richer regions in China.

The manufacturing plant of Norwegian polysilicon manufacturer REC Silicon is located in the United States. The company invested more than $1 billion to build a polysilicon plant in Washington State. After China imposed tariffs on U.S. goods, the company had to slow down production first, and then shut it down completely in 2019.

And the industry may face more domestic difficulties in the future.An executive of Hemlock Semiconductor Group, a US polysilicon manufacturer Tell investors On October 22, he “fully believed” that the US government was about to conduct an investigation into the solar energy supply chain.

Most polysilicon in Xinjiang Manufactured by four Chinese companies, these two companies are among the six largest material suppliers in the world. One of them, Daqo New Energy Corp (Daqo New Energy Corp) is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. What follows is a requirement for transparency, which allows a better understanding of how it operates.

According to Chinese state media reports and the company’s website, it has close ties to the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC), a state-owned paramilitary organization in China. The organization is strong enough to manage cities in the region. Its Chinese activities are known as the “Bingtuan”, and its activities include helping Han immigrants settle and manage farms in Xinjiang. The Corps issued a policy document in 2013, including solar energy as one of its “development goals”.

In July, the US government imposed sanctions on XPCC, claiming that it helped implement the Beijing mass detention policy against Muslims.U.S. on December 2 Prohibition of import of cotton The product produced by XPCC cited evidence of its use of forced labor.

Unable to contact XPCC for comment.

In a public document filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in October, Big q disclosure Since XPCC operates the regional power grid, it has gained “other advantages” in terms of power costs.Local national newspaper The report says The Daegu subsidies paid by the Corps totaled more than 489,447 yuan (approximately US$75,000). These companies also received millions of dollars in subsidies from the Shihezi municipal government in Xinjiang, which is managed by the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.use Chinese Press release, Daegu Xinjiang Branch also pointed out that it is regarded as an “innovative enterprise pilot unit” of XPCC.

Daegu’s polysilicon plant is located 7 miles north of Shihezi City. Construction began in the spring of 2011, when 110 farmland the size of a football field was cleared to make room for the factory. By 2013, it had been completed, and the large industrial buildings covering the site were connected by an elevated pipeline network. In 2014, the building was expanded by another 3 million square feet, and new buildings continued to be added in the following two years. The latest growth of the plant occurred in the summer of 2019. An additional 3 million square feet were added to the southwest end of the building, and the previously unused part of the site was filled with buildings. The factory now occupies 12.2 million square feet, which is equivalent to 215 football fields.

Daktronics could not comment, but Said before It does not use forced labor “under any circumstances, whether in its own facilities or throughout the supply chain.”

According to research by CSIS and other organizations, in Xinjiang, programs euphemistically described as “poverty alleviation” are related to forced labor.

One of Xinjiang’s other large polysilicon producers, GCL-Poly Energy, stated in an annual report that it is cooperating with “vocational schools” in Xinjiang. The government has long called detention camps in this area vocational schools. China News reports also said that GCL-Poly participated in the poverty alleviation program.

Unable to access GCL-Poly to comment.

Francine Sullivan, vice president of business development for Norwegian polysilicon manufacturer REC Silicon, said the industry must make a choice.

She said: “It is unsustainable to build an industry based on coal and slaves.” “Most people in the solar field think that it will be polluted by green and stay away from us. We don’t need solar energy because we are solar energy.” ?