, Columnist
The Dark Side of Going Solar
China’s efforts to corner the market in solar panels will complicate Biden’s clean-energy plans.
A solar farm in Zhejiang Province.
Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg
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In an energy sector dominated for more than a century by polluters, the relatively small solar-power industry has been the good guy. Now it has a darker side.
To be clear, using silicone cells to trap the sun’s rays and turn them into fuel is still better for the climate than burning fossil fuels. But this simple point is complicated by China’s efforts to dominate the market for the polysilicon used to make those cells.