Chester Community Energy (CCE) is a Community Benefit Company that seeks to aid society’s transition to net zero. CCE has funded, via its members, solar photovoltaic (PV) arrays on a number of public buildings in and around Chester. By selling the electricity back to the tenants of those buildings at a lower price than typical in the market, CCE can pay back its members, and surplus monies are paid into a community benefit fund. Since 2016 CCE have made grants totalling over £30,000 available to local good causes.

The members of CCE, and other community energy (CE) groups across the UK, tend to be people who are deeply vested into both ethical and sustainability agendas. Most PVs being sold in Europe are sourced from China. They tend to be cheaper than those made in Europe and also at the cutting edge of technology. There are two main concerns regarding their origin. Although China generates the most solar energy of any country in the world, it is still highly dependent on coal power. Some studies have estimated Chinese manufacturers produce almost twice as much CO₂ per panel as European competitors. This, plus the transportation distance, raises an obvious question about the carbon footprint of PV panels made in China [https://www.ise.fraunhofer.de/en/press-media/press-releases/2021/european-glass-glass-photovoltaic-modules-are-particularly-climate-friendly.html].

A second concern is the potential use of enforced labour. The Xinjiang province is the main manufacturing region for PVs in China (due to proximity to the raw material supply chain), but it is also the region where there are reports of camps for the forced ‘re-education’ of the Uyghur ethnic minority [In broad daylight: Uyghur forced labour in global solar supply chains https://shura.shu.ac.uk/29640/]. Clearly if panels were sourced from companies using a coerced workforce, this would be wholly unacceptable to a community benefit organisation.

If a CE organisation decides to source PV panels from more expensive suppliers, this could impact the financial viability of the overall project, and hence the ability to generate ongoing community benefit.

Earlier this year (2025) students from the University of Chester geography and environment department worked with Chester Community Energy on the development of a sourcing strategy for solar panels that considers the environmental and social sustainability dimensions of production, alongside any impact on project financial viability and the surplus available for community benefit. As well as providing CCE with useful information, the project formed part of the students’ degree requirements.

The students identified solar panel manufacturers based in Europe with certified good environmental and labour manufacturing practices and compared the performance of their PV units with cheaper units sourced from Chinese manufacturers.

Their work concluded that European manufacturing locations may have lower transport related CO₂ emissions and lower manufacturing CO₂ emissions. In addition it is possible to find ethical manufacturers that have signed up to the Solar Industry Forced Labour Prevention Pledge created by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA).

The studies recommended that CCE consider procuring PV panels from European manufacturers that have internationally recognised sustainability certifications and have signed up to pledges against the use of forced labour.

CCE would like to thank the students for their valuable contribution to developing its sustainable sourcing strategy.