Solar is ‘freedom energy’ – unless we depend on autocracies for the technology

(EurActiv, 15 Jul 2022) The production of solar panels is virtually monopolised by China, which makes no secret of its disdain for democratic values. In the absence of a solar industrial strategy, Europe’s dependence on Chinese crystalline silicon solar supply chains will only deepen, warns Mark Widmar.

Mark Widmar is the CEO of First Solar, the largest American solar manufacturer.

While two years of a pandemic cast an uncomfortable spotlight on global supply chain vulnerabilities, Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine set off alarm bells across the democratic world about the inherent risk of depending on adversarial nations for oil and gas supplies.

Amidst the hand-wringing about energy policies that built rather than reduced dependencies, leading voices called for a rethink of long-term energy security strategies and accelerated deployment of renewable energy. Christian Lindner, Germany’s finance minister, said, “Renewable energy releases us from dependence. That’s why renewable energy is freedom energy.”

While Lindner and other European leaders who have voiced similar positions are correct about the potential for democracies to use renewables to decouple themselves from autocracies that supply their fuel, it is not quite that simple.

Sunlight is a free fuel available to every 27 European Union nations, but the solar panels needed to convert photons into electrons are not free. In fact, the production of solar panels, and the value chain that makes it possible to produce them, is virtually monopolised by China, which makes no secret of its disdain for democratic values and harbours its own expansionist ambitions.

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EurActiv, 15 Jul 2022: Solar is ‘freedom energy’ – unless we depend on autocracies for the technology