Solar panel trade group issues guidelines to rid use of components built with forced labor

The U.S. Solar Energy Industries Association has released voluntary guidelines aimed at eliminating the use of forced labor to build solar panel components.

Some U.S. lawmakers have recently expressed concern that the industry is dependent upon the raw material polysilicon linked to work camps in China’s Xinjiang region. U.N. experts and rights groups estimate over a million people, mainly Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities, have been detained in camps in Xinjiang in recent years.

Officials in China, the world’s largest maker of solar products, have denied accusations of abuse.

The guidelines, in the form of a 40-page document, outline measures companies should take to identify sources of a product’s materials and to analyze their movements through the supply chain. The recommendations include rigorous descriptions and documentation accompany products as they move through factories and are shipped to the U.S.