Solar panels: Chinese ethical issues help Quebec SME

An organization in the Quebec City area, which has been trying for years to create a place of its own in solar energy, hopes to raise awareness among the public on the ethical issues related to solar energy. Solar panels in China.

Also read: Hydro panels made in China in labor camps?

“In principle, companies like ours are likely to become more attractive if more people and governments become aware of the problems posed by the purchase of solar panels in China,” said Sebastien Arkand, vice president of international operations at Stace. .

Are made in camps

Here, Newspaper It has been revealed that more than 85% of the 30,000 panels in Hydro-Quebec’s first two solar parks off the south coast of Montreal were purchased from a company in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, which is suspected to benefit labor prisoners. Camps.

Ginkgo Solar, retained by Hydro-Quebec, is the largest maker of solar panels. Since the beginning of this year, at least two investigative reports (American and British) have identified her as one of the makers of photovoltaic panels that took advantage of the forced labor of members of the ethnic minorities who persecuted her.

No one is a prophet …

The company, which has 250 employees in Saint-Augustine-de-Desmores, stands out from the competition in China with solar panels made using polysilicon imported from Germany, Norway and the United States.

At present, the ethical alternative she suggests is mainly attracting foreign clients. For example, France appreciates the opportunity it offers to reduce its carbon footprint.

Hydro-Quebec recently ordered the manufacture of panels for the lock-megantic microgrid. Also, 15% of the panels in the La Prairie Solar Park, most of which were handed over to Ginkgo.

Although Quebec agrees that SME is still low in terms of its capabilities, it does not complain about it. To this day, 95% of its production is still exported abroad.