Morning Brief: Human rights allegations in Xinjiang China could jeopardize solar supply chain

Also in the brief: Time to see how serious industry is about ESG and D&I versus LCOE. Plus Hawaii solar on the rise.

One Tier One solar supplier warned U.S. customers of possible delivery slowdowns or even stoppages.

Image: Nathan Hughes Hamilton/Flickr

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Human rights allegations in Xinjiang could jeopardize solar supply chain: The solar industry’s growing dependence on China’s autonomous Xinjiang region for a critical raw material poses mounting risks to a wide range of companies as the U.S. government moves to confront Beijing over alleged human rights abuses there. In 2019, when solar ranked as the world’s top source of new power generating capacity, about one-third of the polysilicon the industry used to make solar panels came from Xinjiang, according to Johannes Bernreuter of Bernreuter Research. China as a whole accounts for about 80% of global capacity.  In response to questions from Market Intelligence, John Smirnow, VP of market strategy at SEIA, a U.S. trade group for the industry, said the association is “strongly encouraging companies to immediately move their supply chains out of the region.” The association is also relaunching an initiative to raise “awareness and action within the industry on the importance of ensuring ethical supply chains.” Source: S&P Global

Electriq Power a developer integrated home energy storage, management, and monitoring solutions, announced that its residential battery system received a Certificate of System Conformance from the OpenADR Alliance. The industry standard for automated demand response, OpenADR 2.0b certification will enable Electriq Power to integrate with energy aggregators and participate in today’s energy marketplace.  Information on Open ADR here. Source: Electriq

The DC Sustainable Energy Utility (DCSEU) has issued two requests for proposal (RFPs) offering $8 million in incentives to contractors and developers to build solar projects to support one of the largest low- to moderate-income (LMI) solar energy and decarbonization efforts in the country. The District Department of Energy and Environment’s Solar for All program, which began in 2016, is designed to decrease electricity costs for thousands of LMI District families through the installation of solar, all at no cost to residents. Solar contractors and developers can find more information about the RFPs on the Contracting Opportunities page of the DCSEU’s website. DC residents interested in participating in Solar for All can visit www.dcseu.com/SolarForAll to find out more about single-family solar opportunities, or visit doee.dc.gov/SolarForAllto sign up for Community Solar. www.dcseu.com.

According to data compiled by Marco Mangelsdorf, president of ProVision Solar in Hilo, over the first nine months of the year, solar photovoltaic permits were up 22% across Hawaii — with 4,959 permits compared to 4,046 during the same period in 2019. Source: Pacific Business News

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