World News for Students of English

08-02-2023 15:00

China may ban the export of technology for solar panels. The country dominates the industry by controlling at least 75% of its global supply chain. This situation creates repercussions for the West’s hope to create its own green energy industry.

In the “chip war” between the West and China, America is slowing China’s technological development. America restricts the exports of tools and software used to make advanced chips. Chinese media reported that the ban covers technology and machinery used to create solar panel parts such as large wafers, black silicon, and ultra-efficient silicon ingots. However, to protect the export market, the ban doesn’t apply to China’s solar panels themselves.

Western companies have the experience and intellectual property used in the solar industry that developed in America and Europe. This industry occurred before low-cost China scaled up its production and had control. However, building new factories for solar parts would take a few years, and creating an entire solar supply chain could take four times as long.

Difficult words: repercussion (an unwelcome consequence of an event or action), wafer (a thin slice of an electronic part), ingot (an unfinished piece of material, usually metal).

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