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bitfriend6 t1_iya5hi9 wrote

Reply to comment by skunkatwork in Forced Uyghur labor is being used in China's solar panel supply chain, researchers say by chrisdh79

Solar panels are not exclusively made in China nor require slave labor to use, an attack on the solar industry is not an attack on the technology in the same way criticism of TEPCO's handling of Fukishima is not an attack on nuclear energy as a whole. I expect my solar panels to be made by people who want to make them in dignified, tolerable working conditions. Anything less is an assault on democracy and liberal society.

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BunnyReturns_ t1_iya7h66 wrote

I mean you as a person can buy slave free solar panels with a ton of research.

The world cannot in it's current state expand solar power without China.

https://elements.visualcapitalist.com/chinas-dominance-solar-panel-supply-chain/

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kurai_tori t1_iya9k97 wrote

Sounds like governments should incentivize domestic solar panel manufacturering

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ahfoo t1_iyc5x3w wrote

Hah hah! That's amusing. But you must understand that this would not be fair. It's not fair for the government to distort the market you see. That would not be fair. Tariffs --well, that's different.

Tariffs are another story because they punish solar and that benefits oil so that's fair. See? It's all about what's fair.

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BunnyReturns_ t1_iyacatu wrote

Sure, but I haven't read if there is material to just dig up and produce.

China controls 45% of the material needed to build solarpanels (polysilicon) and they control 60% of the wafer manufacturing.

So even if it's possible to just replace, it would probably take a decade or more before it even starts producing

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ahfoo t1_iyc5pvy wrote

Gadzooks! The level of disinformation here is absurd. The US used to be the leading polysilicon supplier to China before the Obama tarrifs that killed the US polysilicon industry. Polysilicon is not rare, it is made of quartz which is found everywhere.

The reason China ramped up their production was because of the Obama tariffs which were designed to shut down the business because oil is what the US is all about. Obama worked for the Big Boys just like all US presidents.

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BunnyReturns_ t1_iyc65te wrote

What part of it is misinformation? I stated that I don't know if there is any material to dig up in other countries. I didn't say that there wasn't, and you didn't dispute the rest which was from the article?

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ahfoo t1_iyc7c9g wrote

The hit piece article?

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BunnyReturns_ t1_iyc7l2o wrote

I only used the data at the very top, didn't even read the article as that wasn't my point

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