First Results on Industrialization of Elkem Solar Silicon at Pillar JSC and Q-Cells

After the development of the Elkem Solar Silicon process, Q-Cells AG, Pillar JSC and Elkem Solar AS have started the qualification program for Elkem Solar Silicon on solar cells out of an industrial manufacturing process on large scale. In the presentation details on the status and most recent results from the test program are given. The manufacturing process in the pilot plant of Elkem Solar AS is in terms of scale-up factors and critical equipment very close to the planed production process on industrial scale. A significant amount of Elkem Solar Silicon was converted to ingots, wafers and solar cells, using industrial standard equipment and slightly modified manufacturing processes. The material yield for the volumes shipped to Q-Cells AG was comparable to virgin poly-silicon taking into account standard specifications. The results on a block level confirmed same lifetime levels as in the blocks made from the virgin poly-silicon reference. Results on multicrystalline solar cells demonstrate average efficiencies well above 15% and no significant difference compared to the poly-silicon reference. Finally the potential for application of ESS feedstock in future high efficiency cell concepts is addressed.