Friday, January 25, 2008

Solar Grade Silicon

Talking about solar power, Dr. Webber mentioned solar energy as one of the renewable energy in class. One of the solar energy resources, silicon, has become extremely valuable, and its stock has gone up profoundly, I wonder if silicon is really destined to play a key role in securing the future need of clean energy.

Solar grade silicon is produced by purifying metallurgical sand silicon; the process consisted of purifying sand to produce silicon tetrachloride (TCS), TCS then undergoes several distillation processes, to produce polysilicon, where it can be further manufactured to make solar panels and integrated circuits such as computer chips.

Silicon has a prominent future since people predicted in the next 100 years solar panel will play an important role in generating electricity. Also with advanced technology, already pure silicon (98%) can be further purified to even purer silicon (99.9999%). In the U.S, there is a huge demand for polysilicon, and almost all the major silicon plants have announced major expansion plans. With a reputation of being the second most common mineral element on earth, the result for silicon is not only emission free, but also the future of green energy.

1 comment:

Cassandra said...

You can make solar panels out of berries. I know people who have done it. Organic electronics, man.