Promoting Ethical Practices in the Solar Energy Industry: A Guide for Government Regulators
Though the adoption of solar energy is largely considered a net positive in the fight to limit greenhouse gas emissions, solar energy also has a slew of associated ethical concerns of which the public may not be aware.
As one of the employees helping shape the regulations governing this emerging industry, you have a unique ability that others don’t. You can play a direct, active role in shaping the solar power industry to shut down as many unethical practices as possible. In doing so, you can fulfill what is, for many, the goal for which they choose a public service career: contribute to making the world a better place for both its current and future inhabitants.
In this article, we’ll take a brief dive into some of the ethical concerns currently plaguing the solar energy industry, and explore some strategies you can leverage to mitigate them.
Ethical Labor Practices
Most solar panels are developed using a material called polysilicon, a special kind of processed silicon made primarily in the northwestern provinces of China. In fact, 45% of the world’s polysilicon supply comes from this region – a fact that has forced many to turn a blind eye to how the material is processed.
Research from the Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice reveals that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has forced millions of indigenous Uyghur and Kazakh citizens into “programs” that produce this material. And though the government itself vociferously denies any sort of coercion on its part, evidence from government and corporate sources suggests that these people are forcibly relocated and enslaved.
As a public sector employee, this is a breach of fair labor practice you cannot ignore. You have a hand in shaping ethical business practices in solar, touching labor standards, as well as environmental protection, consumer protection, and community involvement. You can help solar businesses maintain high standards of quality in their products and operations without compromising how they treat their employees and the environment itself.
The Department of Homeland Security’s recent order limiting purchases from the Uyghur Region is the first step toward correcting this issue. You can further contribute to cutting off business with the province by offering incentives to U.S.-based providers to emerge into the industry, issuing sanctions to those continuing to do business with the region, and educating the public as a state representative on solar energy practices. Encouraging competition and making it more expensive to do business with the PRC address the economic side of the issue, and boosting public awareness can elevate the issue to high priority among colleagues.
You have the power to create an ethics-driven, solar-powered future that has the potential to benefit the entire world.
Environmental Responsibility
After that, the next most significant ethical concern with the solar industry is its impact on the environment. Solar power does help mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, but the actual production and deployment of solar panels can inadvertently cause a wide range of environmental concerns, including:
- Materials production costs: It takes a lot of energy to produce the complex materials used in solar paneling. As a result, it takes a full solar power system about one to four years to produce energy equivalent to what was lost in construction.
- Toxic material leakage: Solar panels contain elements like cadmium, which are extremely toxic to humans and the wider environment. If improperly handled or disposed of, those chemicals can leach into the environment and cause serious damage to local ecosystems.
- Ecosystem disruption: To install solar panels and the framework of transmission lines necessary to support them, developers have to first prep an undeveloped area. Meaning in most cases local wildlife is displaced as trees, foliage, and habitats are razed.
In seeking to address these challenges, the work you do will mostly be centered around minimizing the costs and maximizing the benefits. After all, though you may be able to put restrictions on land development, someone will still need to develop undisturbed land to install solar power frameworks. Using planning tools like decision-making trees can help you chart the most ethical path forward, depicting and empowering you to analyze the positive and negative impacts of policy decisions.
You can then leverage the insights from that process to put restrictions on development, solar panel production, and waste disposal processes. Seeing which damages can be mitigated successfully and which are inevitable will allow you to set reasonable regulations, preserve the environment as much as possible, and pave the way for fossil fuel obsolescence. You may even be able to chart a path forward to a net zero impact on the environment, as policy decisions cause your decision-making tree to evolve and branch toward more positive directions.
You have the power to create an ethics-driven, solar-powered future that has the potential to benefit the entire world. Educate yourself on the issues underlying the growing industry, conduct cost-benefit analyses of possible restrictions, and collaborate with your coworkers to deliver a better, brighter future.
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