Bright Prospects
Do you have on your roof one of the more than 200,000 solar systems installed in Germany? If so, you're one of the lucky few benefiting from a shrewd and timely investment. Because solar silicon, which is used to make solar modules, is in short supply while demand is high and continues to increase.
When demand increases too rapidly
The solar industry registered 1000 percent growth between 2000 and 2005 in Germany alone. Global
demand will exceed current solar silicon production and experts are forecasting a severe shortage
of this important raw material in the next few years. Solar module producers are already being
forced to purchase highly priced silicon from other sectors. Does this spell doom for the currently
booming solar industry?
An excellent process to remove the bottleneck
Probably not, because the looming supply bottleneck will be eased by an innovation from Evonik. In collaboration with SolarWorld AG and a number of German universities, we have developed a new process for cost effective and, most importantly, energy efficient production of high-quality solar silicon. The starting materials are hydrochloric acid and raw silicon, which is processed via a number of intermediate steps into solar silicon. The end product is a brown powder that solar module producers cake into blocks and slice into ultrathin wafers, which form the basic component of the modules.
Photovoltaics: a growth market
The low energy requirement of this process makes solar energy even more eco-friendly. The new process needs only about 10 percent of the energy used by the processes established on the market. We are currently expanding our capacities for silicon production with an investment totaling a high triple-digit million euro amount over the next few years. With a targeted annual production of 850 metric tons of solar silicon, we are helping ensure that photovoltaics, a promising industry of the future, continues to enjoy bright prospects.
