The embodied political ecology of solar energy: Tracing socio-ecological impacts through solar photovoltaic global supply chains

The rapid global transition to renewable energy to mitigate climate change is leading states to compete to secure renewable energy including solar photovoltaic (PV). Yet solar PV also evidences significant socio-ecological impacts throughout its life cycle, which raises questions of sustainability and justice. In this paper we introduce and theorize the ‘embodied political ecology’ of solar PV as a commodity that contributes to a range of impacts, from toxic waste to forced labor. In doing so, we identify the negative impacts of solar PV according to life-cycle analysis (LCA) and non-LCA studies, including the social science literature on global energy supply chains. This provides a more comprehensive means of understanding the full impacts of producing solar PV as a commodity for a global market than is evident in the literature to date. We then situate the embodied political ecology of solar PV within its global supply chain, which underscores the increasing market concentration of China and Chinese companies in processing and manufacturing. This reveals the need for greater and more transparent sustainability and justice in Chinese governance at this stage of the supply chain, while improved governance is needed throughout the global supply chain to minimise solar PV's embodied political ecology.