Minnesota’s plan to produce “carbon-free” electricity by 2040 pits environmentalists against human rights activists. That’s because Minnesota’s plans require increased solar power, whose components are produced using forced labor in China. [some emphasis, links added]
The Heritage Foundation reported that 95 percent of solar panels worldwide contain materials built by forced labor in China.
US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has previously blocked solar imports over suspected ties to forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region, the Daily Caller News Foundation previously reported.
The Biden and Trump administrations both took steps to restrict imports tied to China’s Xinjiang region, where the Chinese government has been accused of subjecting Uyghur Muslims and other ethnic minorities to forced labor.
In recent years, CBP has detained or blocked shipments of solar products under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) after determining importers failed to demonstrate their supply chains were free of forced labor.
The UFLPA has proven ineffective at stopping sales of Chinese solar equipment that’s made with forced labor because China moves its solar supplies through third-party countries like Malaysia or Vietnam before they reach the United States.
Environmentalists refer to solar energy as “clean,” despite at least 45 percent of all solar products being built using slave labor in China; some hard moral questions need to be asked of Minnesota policymakers pushing the transition from coal to solar.
The expansion of Sherburne County Generating Station (Sherco Solar), one of the largest utility-scale solar developments in the United States, reflects Minnesota’s accelerating transition away from coal-fired power.
Xcel Energy is replacing electricity once generated by coal with a combination of solar generation, battery storage and other energy resources to ensure the company meets Minnesota’s clean-energy requirements, according to MPR News.
Xcel Energy is a Minneapolis-based electric and natural gas utility.
According to representatives from Xcel, the proposed fourth phase of Minnesota’s energy transition from coal to “clean” energy sources like solar could be completed by 2029, bringing the site’s total capacity to 910 megawatts.
The transition marks a significant shift for a facility that for decades served as Minnesota’s largest power plant and one of the region’s primary sources of electricity.
The Sherco Solar project contains approximately 1.7 million solar panels, according to MPR News. And most, if not all, of those panels will come from China — meaning they will likely be built by slave labor.
The site’s total generating capacity is approximately 910 megawatts, further extending the company’s transition away from coal while making the Becker-area facility one of the largest solar installations in the country.
The project is part of their larger plan to move to solar. They claim that it will create 300 more union jobs and produce $90 million in local benefits.
Last month, the Department of Energy announced up to $350 million for four coal modernization and reliability projects.
The scale of the project highlights the growing demand for solar components as U.S. officials continue to scrutinize global solar supply chains for potential links to forced labor.
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