New Production Route for Solar Cells from New Feedstock and Waste Raw Materials (New PRoCeS)

The proposed innovation project is directed towards a new production process for silicon solar cells - from new and waste raw materials to finished solar cell product. Industrial partners in the project are Umoe Solar and 6N Silicon Inc. in close cooperat ion with SINTEF, NTNU and the International Solar Energy Research Center Konstanz (ISC Konstanz). The primary objective of the proposed project is to develop a new, low-cost production route for efficient solar cell products, based on new and waste raw m aterials and innovative solar cell processing techniques. Development of such process will ensure that the production of electricity from solar cells becomes economically competitive with fossil, CO2 intensive sources of energy production. It will also fa cilitate better utilisation of raw materials in the wafer manufacturing line by recycling of the valuable silicon otherwise lost in the sawing waste (so called kerf) and at the same time, avoid unnecessary waste deposition. The project will be divided int o two sub-projects, where the first will include the production of silicon feedstock and the second will include the production of ingots, solar cells and defect engineering.