Solar panels bought for English schools and hospitals will come from China, Ed Miliband has admitted, despite concerns over human rights and impacts on the environment.
The first project of the Energy Secretary’s new green quango will see it oversee a £180million project to install rooftop panels on 200 school buildings and almost as many NHS sites.
He told broadcasters yesterday that the investment from Great British Energy will immediately save the public sector money on electricity bills, with services able to sell excess power back to the National Grid.
But when asked where the solar panels will come from he conceded that some will come from China, which is responsible for an estimated 80 per cent of total global supply. Quizzed as to why British ones were not being used, Mr Miliband told LBC radio: ‘Our solar panel industry has not got this kind of share of the market.’
When asked if they will come from China or Russia, he said: ‘Some of them will be, they’ll be from different countries, but that’s why we’ve got to build our domestic industry.’
The first project of the Energy Secretary’s new green quango will see it oversee a £180million project to install rooftop panels on 200 school buildings and almost as many NHS sites. Pictured: Miliband attends the China-UK Energy Dialogue with Wang Hongzhi, head of China’s National Energy Administration, in Beijing earlier this week
He told broadcasters yesterday that the investment from Great British Energy will immediately save the public sector money on electricity bills, with services able to sell excess power back to the National Grid. Pictured: File photo
But when asked where the solar panels will come from he conceded that some will come from China. Pictured: Miliband and Chinese Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang on Monday
Critics say it makes no sense for Britain to attempt to cut emissions in the UK by shipping materials from China, where they are likely to have been manufactured using electricity from coal-fired power plants. The Conservatives’ energy spokesman Andrew Bowie said: ‘If these solar panels do come from thousands of miles away it shows how ridiculous this whole thing is. Ed Miliband and his eco warriors need to get real.’
There are also concerns that China’s solar power industry uses the forced labour of Uyghurs in Xinjiang province. Next week MPs will debate a proposal that would outlaw public funding of renewable companies with forced labour in their supply chains.
The amendment to the Great British Energy Bill was passed by the Lords last month in a defeat for the Government, but Labour ministers are expected to use their majority in the Commons to remove it from the legislation.
Luke de Pulford, of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, told the Mail: ‘Uyghur forced labour is rife in the solar supply chain, and very little is being done about it.
‘Where’s the climate justice in a green transition built on modern slavery? I hope the Government sees sense.’
Sources said strict procurement rules will allow the Department for Education and the NHS to end contracts with suppliers that have broken slavery laws.