Solar energy, as with all renewable energy sources, is attracting ever-increasing interest and prominence on a global scale. For almost two decades, both Germany and Japan have been at the forefront of solar power installations, but many other European countries and the United States are now following suit, and many new markets will emerge as costs continue to reduce and concerns over climate change escalate.

Solar or photovoltaic (PV) cells are devices that produce electricity directly from sunlight.

Solar panels, suitable for mounting on rooftops, ideally south-facing, are manufactured using a number of cells which are connected together and integrated within a weatherproof framework.

The solar panels are connected to a building’s existing electrical system and provide clean, renewable energy during daylight hours, without producing any emissions or noise.

Government subsidies available to residential customers have been introduced in many countries including the UK, reducing the cost of installation and encouraging take-up.

A very attractive further incentive is usually also offered, termed feed-in tariffs (FITs), and in April this year the UK FITs will come into force.

FITs mean that the energy generated by roof-mounted solar panels and used or fed back into the national grid is effectively purchased from the household by the electricity provider, usually at several times the normal unit price.

The vast majority, around 90 per cent, of all solar cells produced today are based on the well-known semi-conductor, silicon.

Silicon is a benign element, being completely non-toxic, and is derived from silicon oxide, better known as sand.

As a result, silicon is available in inexhaustible quantities, and can be found all around the world. Silicon-based solar cells have a minimum life expectancy of 25 years and should continue to operate effectively for a much longer period of time, recovering the production energy required to manufacture them many, many times over.

PV Crystalox Solar, with headquarters at Milton Park, Abingdon, is one of the world’s largest producers of multi-crystalline silicon and silicon wafers for the solar cell industry, each wafer being the key component of a solar cell.

All the company’s multicrystalline silicon ingot production is carried out in Oxfordshire, with ingot production facilities on both Milton Park and the nearby Culham Science Centre.

Established in 1982, Crystalox pioneered the development of multi-crystalline silicon production on an industrial scale, becoming a world leader and setting several industry standards for silicon ingot production during the early 1990s.

Since then, the PV Crystalox Solar Group of companies has been formed, with silicon wafering operations in the world’s leading PV centres, Germany and Japan.

During 2009, the Group produced almost ten per cent of the multi-crystalline silicon wafers used in newly-installed PV power around the world.

With in-house expertise in the design and construction of advanced ingot production systems, and with almost two decades of ingot production experience, Crystalox is well-placed in the PV industry and continues to expand its ingot and silicon wafer production capacities.

The Crystalox-designed ingot production systems operate at temperatures up to 1600 degrees centigrade, melting and re-crystallising high purity silicon under carefully controlled conditions to produce large multi-crystalline ingots, each weighing 250kg.

The ingots are then cut into blocks with industry-standard dimensions of 156mm square, in preparation for production of wafers.

Approximately a third of the ingots are cut into blocks at the Milton facility using specialised wire saw technology, and following stringent electrical and mechanical quality checks the blocks are transferred to our European wafering plant, located in Erfurt, Germany.

The remaining two thirds of the ingots are delivered to our sub-contract partners in Japan, uncut, where cutting into blocks and wafers takes place.

The wafer production plants in Germany and Japan again use wire saws to slice the silicon blocks into very thin wafers, typically 0.2mm or less in thickness, with each wafer being the basis for a solar cell.

PV Crystalox supplies silicon wafers to a number of the world’s largest PV companies. Around 60 per cent of sales are currently made in Japan and European customers include BP Solar, Q-Cells and Schott Solar in Germany.

Sales in the United States will begin this year and are expected to grow rapidly.

The combination of technical developments with continuously decreasing costs, financial incentive programmes and growing environmental factors and climate goals all mean that solar power is here to stay.

The last decade has seen rapid development in the worldwide PV industry, with around 30 per cent growth year on year, and this is expected to continue in the coming years. The future looks bright indeed.

Contact: 01235 437160 Web: www.pvcrystalox.com This page is co-ordinated by Oxford Innovation www.oxin.co.uk