The breakneck development of China’s green energy industry has taken many by surprise. But behind the boom lurk some murky truths.
By Wang Yan
Incurable lung disease is not a condition most people associate with the concept of environmental sustainability. However, in China’s Guizhou province, the two have become inexorably linked, following the recent diagnosis of 195 silicon factory employees with silicosis, a potentially fatal form of lung disease. The factory, based in Shibing county, was founded in 1999 by Hengsheng Metallurgy, widely regarded as Asia’s largest silicon producer. It has more than 1,000 workers and 34 smelting furnaces, with an annual production capacity of 120,000 tons of industrial silicon. In addition to its various applications in the field of semiconductors, silicon is the raw material used in the manufacturing of polycrystalline silicon, a key component in most modern solar panels.
Silicosis is a type of pneumoconiosis, an incurable lung disease caused by inhaling silica (also known as quartz or silicon dioxide) dust while drilling, cutting, crushing, grinding or blasting silicon ore. Symptoms include dry coughing, fatigue, fever, loss of appetite, breathing difficulties, chest pains, and, eventually, lead to death. Because chronic silicosis is slow to develop, signs and symptoms may not appear until several years after exposure.
Silicon City
Due to the success of the Hengsheng factory, Shibing county has adopted an unofficial moniker, “Silicon City.” On the local government website, a statement proclaims that “Since Hengsheng launched its silicon production company in our county in 1999, it has established a foundation for local industrial development.” For the past 11 years, the tax revenue from the company has reached 0.3 billion yuan (US44m).
According to a report conducted by The Southern Metropolitan Daily, the annual tax paid by Hengsheng to the local government accounts for almost half of the county’s total revenue. “In 2009, the total fiscal revenue of the county was 170.28 million yuan (US25m), with Hengsheng’s tax contributing a total of 70 million yuan (US10m) to that fund.”
Against the backdrop of near worldwide interest in the development of renewable energy, coupled with a rising international demand for solar panel technology, China’s silicon manufacturing industry has surged.
China is now one of the world leaders in metallurgical silicon production, with an annual capacity of 1.2 million tons. In recent years, the annual production of silicon has ranged between 800,000 to 1 million tons. Silicon manufacturers are located predominately in southwestern and northwestern regions, including Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou, Guangxi, Jilin, Liaoning and Inner Mongolia. Currently around 75 to 80 percent of all silicon produced in China is exported overseas.
A worker in Hengsheng can produce an average 220 kilograms of industrial silicon per day. However, fears now abound that employees’ work rate may be disrupted, as silicosis begins to descend over the company. In April alone, a total of 38 workers were diagnosed with silicosis. That figure is likely to rise; currently there are an estimated 100 more employees waiting to be examined. The latency period for silicosis can be as long as 20 years, meaning that while relatively few employees currently exhibit outward symptoms, the future may see an epidemic.
In the years immediately following the factory’s opening in 1999, employees were expected to work without the aid of any protective equipment. The company only began to distribute facemasks to employees in 2004 after being fined several times over health and safety violations by the local provincial environmental bureau. As of 2007, the factory has allocated each worker four gauze masks per month. Criticisms of the company’s lax regulations have extended beyond the factory floor, however, with the company frequently named on local and national pollution blacklists. In 2006 the company was forced to install six sets of dust collectors for its 34 furnaces. According to the factory’s workers, the collectors are rarely operational, and are mere “window dressing.”
Solar Boom
Due to growing demand for solar cells on the international market, there has been a dramatic increase in the manufacturing output of both silicon and polycrystalline silicon.
According to a report by askci.com, a Chinese market research group, as of December 2008, there were at least 235 major silicon manufacturers in China, making China the world’s largest exporter of industrial silicon.
According to iSuppli Corporation, in 2009 China produced more than 3.6GW of silicon photovoltaic (PV cells), 90 percent of which was sold on the international market, making China also the world’s largest exporter of solar batteries. iSuppli predicts that Chinese PV sales in 2010 will reach 309 million, a 95.3 percent year-on-year increase.
Among the world’s top 10 manufacturers of solar batteries, five are based in China, namely, Yingli Green Energy (the first energy company to sponsor the FIFA World Cup), Suntech Power, Trina Solar, JA Solar and Canadian Solar.
The Chinese government has been quick to support this nascent industry, issuing two major stimulus plans to help activate the domestic market. “Solar Rooftops” and the “Golden Sun” projects, both issued in March 2009, aim to encourage domestic investors and manufacturers of PV to look towards the domestic market for growth. Within Beijing, dozens of villages have adopted the solar panels to provide electricity for street lamps.