The fact that China dominates solar panel manufacturers using slave labour tends to take the smugness out of Western virtue signallers.

Over time, a few journalists have been able to sneak a peek behind the CCP curtain and bring to light the manner in which China’s ‘employs’ its Uyghur and Kazakh minorities to manufacture the world’s cheapest solar panels.

In the same way that the American South dominated cotton production pre-Civil War, the CCP is able to dominate the solar market by keeping a firm lid on labour costs.

And those pesky environmental standards that require manufacturers in the West to avoid or control the dumping of toxic rare earths and poisonous byproducts, get short shrift in China. And all to allow for the subsidised and thoroughly sporadic generation of feelgood electricity in the West.

Paul Homewood reports on how China has become the dominant player in pandering to the smug and self-satisfied solar panel owner.

How China Dominates The World’s Solar PV Supply
Not a Lot of People Know That
Paul Homewood
8 August 2022

A new report from the IEA shows just how much China dominates the Solar PV industry:

Let’s look at some of the charts.

The first set show how far China’s dominance has increased since 2010, particularly on wafers and polysilicon, the early stages of the manufacturing stage:

And frighteningly that dominance is expected to continue growing:

China’s dominance is built on lower costs, the result of low electricity costs, lack of environmental standards and what amounts to slave labour. It is fundamentally clear that the West cannot compete on China’s terms, leaving the dilemma of strategic overdependence on China or much higher solar panel costs.
Not A Lot Of People Know That