Solarvalue AG is pleased to announce that its Silicon Feedstock Pilot
Facility located in the United States is now fully operational and that
silicon has successfully been processed and purified. Initial analysis
show that the innovative process using tailor made equipment is able
to reduce impurities by using unidirectional solidification. During the
next months the companys experts will continue to work on optimizing
the purification process.
These encouraging results complete the requirements for the
upcoming milestone of Solarvalue to transfer its innovative production
process to the company-owned industrial scale production plant in
Ruse, Slovenia, in the second half of 2008.
This is a key achievement in moving our individually developed, cost
effective silicon feedstock process to production-scale said Dr. Julio
Bragagnolo, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Solarvalue AG. This
facility significantly enhances our ability to fine-tune the process for
scale-up in Slovenia.
The goal of the companys silicon feedstock plant project is to develop
and demonstrate a new approach to refine metallurgical grade silicon
into high purity solar grade silicon feedstock for photovoltaic (PV)
applications. A major constraint in the PV value chain has been the
supply of silicon feedstock.
To analyze the chemical composition Solarvalue sent samples to a
well known independent materials characterization laboratory in the
United States. The analysis results of the silicon produced after one
step of refining show a significant reduction of the relevant impurity
concentrations.
John Mott, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the Slovenian production
company and head of the pilot facility project said: The Solarvalue
approach uses a new technique that will produce silicon feedstock for
the crystalline silicon ingot process for solar cell production at low
cost. It is based on our experiences when we successfully used this
process in the 1980s at Solarex in the U.S. to produce solar grade
silicon. Our target is to meet the specifications of solar PV cell
manufacturers without the need for blending.