Sun, Silicon, and Xinjiang

This week, we talk solar power—a long overdue topic on Decouple.
In the past, guests have often been critical of the value of
renewables on grids without extensive storage, and of the quality
of jobs that politicians often claim when justifying renewables
programs. Today, however, we drop preconceptions and get to the
nuts and bolts. My guest is Seaver Wang, director of the Climate
and Energy Research Program at The Breakthrough Institute.
Despite is imperfections, the solar power has a remarkable story,
from its technological origins, to its dramatic cost reductions
in the last decade, to the sheer scale of new capacity being
added in places like China. We cover these topics and more in
this episode: the Solar Masterclass.


Watch now on YouTube.


We talk about




Historical roots and evolution of solar technology




Impact of the German Energiewende and feed-in tariffs




China's rise to dominance in solar manufacturing




Energy-intensive production processes of polysilicon




Controversy over Uyghur forced labor in Xinjiang




Solar’s lifecycle emissions and environmental impacts




Dramatic cost reductions and economies of scale




Limitations and misconceptions in distributed solar




Future integration with battery storage




Role of geopolitical and ethical issues in solar supply
chains