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Solar Silicon - A Bright New Future
In dramatically short supply, polysilicon is the largest single cost component of a solar module.
In the past, scrap silicon from the semiconductor industry was used to make solar cells. Rapid growth in the solar industry has caused the silicon demand to exceed this supply of semiconductor scrap. The industry has grown so fast that in 2006 the demand for primary silicon from the solar industry exceeded the demand from the semiconductor industry. The solar industry has not looked back. The most conservative projections foresee a continued rapid growth through the next decade at more than 30% per year.
This growth has created a fundamental challenge. Silicon production cannot keep up. The photovoltaic industry as a whole suffers from a manufacturing bottleneck caused by the cost and time required to add new polysilicon manufacturing capacity. The conventional route is not only expensive and time-consuming to expand. It is also very energy intensive and has environmental considerations that affect the flexibility of location selection and feedstock management. The solar industry is artificially constrained due to the semiconductor silicon manufacturing process.
6N's proprietary low-cost silicon purification process provides a revolutionary approach to the production of solar grade silicon. The 6N approach is considerably more capital efficient than conventional alternatives and increased capacity can be added very quickly. The 6N Silicon product and process fits the needs and growing market demand. A true solar grade silicon.
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