Advanced solar-grade si material

Abstract

The actual Si shortage resulted in very high spot prices for solar-grade silicon and led to discussions on whether existing producers with their production methods will be able to cover the future demand of the solar industry. There are, again, opinions being expressed that alternative production methods are more suitable to fill the gap at lower costs. Here, requirements and possibilities have to be checked very carefully. Also old knowledge and experience about the different possibilities to produce silicon should not be forgotten. The future supply of silicon to the PV industry has to be seen in the tense environment of quality, costs and time of implementation. © 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.