FESIL Solar Grade Silicon

The photo-voltaic (PV) industry has an growth rate of about 30% - a situation that many other industries can only dream about. Today, the majority of solar cells are made of silicon, and experts believe that it will take at least a decade before other PV technology based on other materials can hope to be competitive. The dramatic growth in the PV industry has, however, caused a lack of solar grade silicon (SoG-Si), i.e., silicon with the required chemical purity for PV applications, resulting in increased prices for such material. Presently, the shortage of low-cost SoG-Si is the main factor preventing environmental friendly solar energy to become a giant in the energy market in a generation or two. As a world leading producer of silicon and wafers, Norw egian industry has world-class competence on materials and processes involved in solar cell production. Norwegian companies and R&D institutions together with international partners have developed several new processes for production of SoG-Si. One of the se are the so-called SOLSILC (Solar grade silicon at low cost) developed through a series of EU-projects, in which silicon is produced from ultra-high purity raw materials by a carbothermic reduction process. Pilot-scale experiments with the SOLSILC-proce ss have resulted in a world record purity, but there are large R&D challenges related to the develop the process to an industrial scale. The Norwegian company FESIL, partly owned by the Norwegian energy-giant Hafslund, is presently taking on these challen ges with the support of SINTEF and other co-workers. The realisation and success of the FESOL project is a necessary requirement in order to "make SOLSILC happen" on an industrial scale.