UK state-owned energy company to ban forced labor in solar supply chain

The UK government will amend legislation to ensure that Great British Energy does not use supply chains linked to forced labor, representing a significant development for Britain's solar industry.

State-owned Great British Energy -- launched by the Labour government after its election win in 2024 -- will be prohibited from backing projects with supply chains linked to alleged slavery practices or human trafficking.

The company made its first investment in March, investing GBP200 million ($265 million) in a rooftop solar project at UK schools and hospitals.

"Great British Energy will be a sector leader in building new energy infrastructure using ethical supply chains," the government said in an April 23 statement.

Significant implications for UK solar

Britain's solar industry relies heavily on China -- by far the world's largest solar manufacturer -- for polysilicon, in particular. Polysilicon is a key ingredient in crystalline-silicon solar panels.

Companies in China's Xinjiang region, a polysilicon hub, have been accused of human rights violations involving forced labor. Countries such as the US, via its Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, have blocked imports from China as a result. Similar regulations from the EU will come into force in 2027.

China has consistently denied the use of forced labor in the country. "Any attempt to politicize economic and trade issues and to disrupt normal China-UK trade will harm oneself as well as others," a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy to the UK said in an online statement. "Such attempts will not gain ground or sustain for long."

The Chinese embassy said the nation has become a global manufacturing hub through technological innovation.

The Solar Taskforce for the UK's Department for Energy Security and Net Zero is focusing on developing supply chains that are "resilient, sustainable and free from forced labor," a department spokesperson said in an emailed statement to Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights.

"No industry in the UK should rely on forced labor and, through Great British Energy, we have a clear plan to build the supply chains needed to support a new era of clean homegrown power, bringing jobs and investment," the spokesperson said.

"Having listened carefully to the views of [members of Parliament and the House of Lords], we are considering how we can go further to help ensure Great British Energy is a sector leader in this area and will provide an update shortly."

'No small feat'

The move to amend legislation represents a turnaround for the UK government, which voted down a previous amendment in March. Just 309 of the Labour Party's 403 sitting members of parliament voted against the amendment, with many abstaining.

News of the change came after a campaign by the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, a cross-party group of parliamentarians.

"It is no small feat to secure an amendment against a government with a majority of 170, and reflects well on the ministers who decided to act to protect the UK from complicity in the persecution of Uyghurs," Luke de Pulford, executive director of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, said in a statement.

"The government now has to find a way of honoring these commitments while maintaining climate targets — a tough challenge given China's dominance of renewable supply chains, but achievable," de Pulford said.

Trade body Solar Energy UK welcomed the amendment, saying the government and Great British Energy can take a "global leadership position" on the issue of forced labor through more active engagement with the Solar Stewardship Initiative (SSI).

The SSI was founded in 2021 by Solar Energy UK and its European counterpart, SolarPower Europe, to promote sustainable production in the solar value chain.

"By the end of this year, SSI-certified manufacturing facilities will be able to produce 100 GW of solar panels per year, from independently assessed sites which are not complicit in forced labor," Solar Energy UK said in a statement.

"That is around five times more than all of the UK's existing solar panels put together, more than enough to meet both UK and EU demand. This number will continue to grow."