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Silicon for solar panels has to be 99.999999 percent pure—six 9s after the decimal. Computer chips are even more demanding. Their silicon needs to be 99.9999999
by jnsaff2 3y ago
Silicon for solar panels has to be 99.999999 percent pure—six 9s after the decimal. Computer chips are even more demanding. Their silicon needs to be 99.99999999999 percent pure—eleven 9s.
- ethbr1 3y agoHow consumable-intensive is doped silicone production? Afaik, it's more strict metallurgy (materialurgy?): temperature, time, some physical process. Point being, I'd be curious on the actual cost of material inputs, if the price of solar panels crashes. How low can they go... and still be worth making?
- rbanffy 3y ago> How consumable-intensive is doped silicone production? From https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38150735 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38150735, it’s very energy intensive. > if the price of solar panels crashes. How low can they go... and still be worth making? Boules are very storable, so it’s the financials of pausing production and storing materials until the price (or new tech) makes it profitable. Not the most socially responsible thing to do in decarbonisation times, but done with aluminium and other energy intensive storables all the time.
- ethbr1 3y agoThe irony of intermittent solar's excess power potentially being soaked up by intermittent boule-manufacturing (followed by storage) is too delicious.