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Fascinating twitter thread by Seaver Wang:
Posting the contents here for ease of reading:
Seaver's thread:
Since I've mentioned this statistic to folks in some recent conversations, may as well share here. This single metals factory in the Xinjiang region has more onsite coal capacity (~5.1GW) than the power generation capacity of the whole country of Kenya (~3.1GW, 53 million ppl).
This facility (44.68N 89.1E) belongs to Xinjiang East Hope Nonferrous Metals and makes solar-grade polysilicon, aluminum and metallurgical-grade silicon. East Hope is under US govt sanctions for its plant's links to state-run Uyghur forced labor programs.
You can read more about the extensive forced labor, coal mining, coal energy, metals smelting, and "clean tech" manufacturing ecosystem in the Uyghur region in the following reports:
thebreakthrough.org
www.shu.ac.uk
www.shu.ac.uk
Sub thread:
In researching our Xinjiang solar supply chain report + learning about the province's coal landscape, an eye-opening finding was that there's an argument for revising the world ranking of largest coal plants.XJ hosts some of the highest concentrations of coal units in the world.
The above image shows the Wucaiwan Bei'er coal power plant and the Tianchi Energy Zhundong Wucaiwan coal power plant. While listed as two separate plants w different operators, practically this is one facility w 8x660MW units or 5.28GW. This would rank #6 if counted as one plant.
East Hope Metals Wucaiwan power station (12x350MW) + Guotai Xinhua Coal Chemical power station (2x350MW) + Dongming Plastic power station (2x100MW) = 5100MW total. This would rank #8.Perhaps the 8th largest coal plant in the world is linked to a solar-grade polysilicon fab.
I'll note the 1st + 2nd photos are just 15 km down the road from one another. But sure yes, technically these are multiple plants w different owners, constructed in different stages + at different times. Bundling in this way might shuffle the global ranking quite significantly.
Within a 20km x 24km grid of these two clusters of power plants are another *20* coal-fired units, making 44 units in total in this part of the Zhundong industrial park.The crazy thing was that companies were going to build *a dozen more* until national regulators stepped in.
On satellite imagery you can see that another 4x350MW of coal were under construction at East Hope's plant in the southeastern corner, with initial prep for large expansions of aluminum smelting capacity underway along the north side of the facility.
Here is the ranking from @GlobalEnergyMon's database. Certainly there are freaking big coal plants elsewhere in China + around the globe!But look in Google Earth at the Gobi Desert north of Ürümqi and the sheer concentration of mine-to-mouth industry truly stands out as unique.
Pictures are worth 1000 words each. The cover photo for @Yaqiu's excellent essay on authoritarian environmentalism in China shows the consequences of Xinjiang's coal industry clearly: thick smog and air pollution.Photo at approx 43.91N, 87.70E looking south.
*snip*
Xinjiang-produced solar commodities are also extremely carbon-intensive due to heavy use of coal power, heat, and coal-derived fuels.Such solar products are still net climate-beneficial, but cleaner production would greatly enhance clean energy potential of solar products.
Subthread link for the above, which goes into more detail that I'm not going to post, about how expansion of this is happening, can be found here:
Interesting bit is how insanely dirty this is, and that it takes basically 10 years, at the current emissions intensity of California's grid, to payback the CO2 emitted to produce it.
Now, figure the grid is like Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba or somewhere else with a fraction of the emissions intensity of China, does the panel EVER pay back its emissions?
Posting the contents here for ease of reading:
Seaver's thread:
Since I've mentioned this statistic to folks in some recent conversations, may as well share here. This single metals factory in the Xinjiang region has more onsite coal capacity (~5.1GW) than the power generation capacity of the whole country of Kenya (~3.1GW, 53 million ppl).
This facility (44.68N 89.1E) belongs to Xinjiang East Hope Nonferrous Metals and makes solar-grade polysilicon, aluminum and metallurgical-grade silicon. East Hope is under US govt sanctions for its plant's links to state-run Uyghur forced labor programs.
You can read more about the extensive forced labor, coal mining, coal energy, metals smelting, and "clean tech" manufacturing ecosystem in the Uyghur region in the following reports:
Confronting the Solar Manufacturing Industry's Human Rights Problem
New report, "Sins of a Solar Empire," calls for solar industry to address unethical solar photovoltaic manufacturing in Xinjiang.
thebreakthrough.org
Driving Force | Sheffield Hallam University
Automotive Supply Chains and Forced Labour in the Uyghur Region
In Broad Daylight Uyghur Forced Labour in the Solar Supply Chain | Sheffield Hallam University
In Broad Daylight reveals how forced labour in the Uyghur region has ripple effects throughout international solar supply chains.
Sub thread:
In researching our Xinjiang solar supply chain report + learning about the province's coal landscape, an eye-opening finding was that there's an argument for revising the world ranking of largest coal plants.XJ hosts some of the highest concentrations of coal units in the world.
The above image shows the Wucaiwan Bei'er coal power plant and the Tianchi Energy Zhundong Wucaiwan coal power plant. While listed as two separate plants w different operators, practically this is one facility w 8x660MW units or 5.28GW. This would rank #6 if counted as one plant.
East Hope Metals Wucaiwan power station (12x350MW) + Guotai Xinhua Coal Chemical power station (2x350MW) + Dongming Plastic power station (2x100MW) = 5100MW total. This would rank #8.Perhaps the 8th largest coal plant in the world is linked to a solar-grade polysilicon fab.
I'll note the 1st + 2nd photos are just 15 km down the road from one another. But sure yes, technically these are multiple plants w different owners, constructed in different stages + at different times. Bundling in this way might shuffle the global ranking quite significantly.
Within a 20km x 24km grid of these two clusters of power plants are another *20* coal-fired units, making 44 units in total in this part of the Zhundong industrial park.The crazy thing was that companies were going to build *a dozen more* until national regulators stepped in.
On satellite imagery you can see that another 4x350MW of coal were under construction at East Hope's plant in the southeastern corner, with initial prep for large expansions of aluminum smelting capacity underway along the north side of the facility.
Here is the ranking from @GlobalEnergyMon's database. Certainly there are freaking big coal plants elsewhere in China + around the globe!But look in Google Earth at the Gobi Desert north of Ürümqi and the sheer concentration of mine-to-mouth industry truly stands out as unique.
Pictures are worth 1000 words each. The cover photo for @Yaqiu's excellent essay on authoritarian environmentalism in China shows the consequences of Xinjiang's coal industry clearly: thick smog and air pollution.Photo at approx 43.91N, 87.70E looking south.
*snip*
Xinjiang-produced solar commodities are also extremely carbon-intensive due to heavy use of coal power, heat, and coal-derived fuels.Such solar products are still net climate-beneficial, but cleaner production would greatly enhance clean energy potential of solar products.
Subthread link for the above, which goes into more detail that I'm not going to post, about how expansion of this is happening, can be found here:
Interesting bit is how insanely dirty this is, and that it takes basically 10 years, at the current emissions intensity of California's grid, to payback the CO2 emitted to produce it.
Now, figure the grid is like Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba or somewhere else with a fraction of the emissions intensity of China, does the panel EVER pay back its emissions?
