TECHNICAL PROGRESS ON THE BAYER ROUTE TO LOW COST SOLAR GRADE SILICON

摘要

For the growth of the photovoltaic industry it seems inevitable that an independent feedstock supply of solar grade high purity silicon will be created because the availability of the hitherto used by-products provided by the electronic silicon industry is limited and will not increase reasonably within the next 10-15 years. Bayer evaluated different ways for the production of solar grade silicon with a capacity of up to 5000 mt/y. By calculation of the different routes it seems possible to install a 5000 t plant by an investment of 110 Mio Euro and to sell Si-feedstock with a price level of 12-15 Euro/kg. Bayer is developing a suitable process and considering what effort is necessery for a pilot production plant.