The Solar Stewardship Initiative (SSI) – founded by trade bodies Solar Energy UK and SolarPower Europe – has released a Supply Chain Traceability Standard for solar manufacturers.
The standard aims to trace silicon from quartz mining to solar module production and implement management and broader environmental, social and governance (ESG) measures. It will assess specific manufacturing facilities from companies that have voluntarily signed up for assessment.
The SSI was launched in 2022 by SolarPower Europe and Solar Energy UK. The initiative has over 40 members across the solar industry, according to its website, including a number of major Chinese manufacturers and global solar power buyers. It already has a general ESG standard, published in October 2023. Companies whose operations meet SSI criteria can label their products as such.
Alexia Ruvoletto, head of the SSI Secretariat said: “The SSI Supply Chain Traceability Standard sets a new bar for end-to-end supply chain accountability in the solar sector. By establishing a clear, verifiable chain of custody for materials, it lays the groundwork for a more sustainable and ethical solar industry.”
The new standard requires that a compliant manufacturing facility source its materials from suppliers “with a traceability system meeting the requirements” of the SSI and must have a process in place “in the future” to source materials from “SSI certified suppliers.”
It also stipulates that a manufacturer must operate a “material accounting system” to track materials from the point they enter a facility until they leave as a final product. It must also record and reconcile the quantity of material entering and leaving the facility and account for any discrepancies.
The full version of this article is available on our sister site, PV Tech.
