REC – An All In One Solar Company

Headquartered in Oslo – Norway, the REC Group is the world’s largest producer of silicon materials for photovoltaic (PV) applications and PV wafers, as well as a significant producer of cells and modules.

Simply put, one stop shopping in the photovoltaic manufacturing world.

It is organized in three divisions: REC Silicon, REC Wafer and REC Solar.

REC Silicon - Moses Lake, Washington and Butte, Montana – USA
Solar grade silicon is the raw material that goes into the production of solar wafers and cells. The process starts with metallurgical grade silicon that is already about 98% pure. The metallurgical grade silicon is purified into silane gas by means of several distillation processes. Some of the silane gas is sold to manufactures of semiconductors, flat panel displays and thin film solar cells. Most of the gas is utilized by REC Silicon to make solar grade silicon. The silane gas is solidified by being deposited on slim silicon rods under high temperatures. The slim rods grow into solar grade silicon material. The end result is solar grade silicon that is more than 99.999% pure, ready to be shipped to silicon wafer manufacturers.

REC Wafer – Glomfjord and Herøya – Norway
In this division REC turns the solar grade silicon into leaf-thin wafers used in solar cells. Solar grade silicon is first put into crucibles and melted in special furnaces. It is then cooled from the bottom, crystallization begins and multicrystalline silicon is formed. The resulting massive ingot is cut into 16 bricks, each again sliced into leaf-thin wafers. The wafer is now ready to be processed into a solar cell.

REC Solar – Cells: Narvik – Norway | Modules: Glava – Sweden
Wafers are the starting material for solar cells, and cells for modules. The silicon wafer is first chemically treated to etch away saw damages and increase light absorption. A dopant is introduced into or onto the surface to make an electric field. A thin layer of antireflecting material is applied to the surface. Finally, electrical contacts are applied, normally by screen-printing. The cells are tested before they are framed and sealed in modules. The solar modules are sold to distributors, project developers and system integrators in the international PV market. In addition, REC Solar is engaged in a small residential systems installation business in South Africa.

Note: NOT to be confused with the REC Solar that does solar installations and consulting in the western United States. Although I hear they are an outstanding company in their own right.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Making solar cheaper than coal (news.cnet.com)
• Cheaper Materials Could Be Key To Low-cost Solar Cells (sciencedaily.com)
• First Energy Department Loan Guarantee Goes To … A Solar Manufacturer (worldchanging.com)

Tags: Business, energy, Everything Solar, Manufacturing, photovoltaic, solar cell, united states, Wafer

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 5th, 2009 at 8:48 am and is filed under Everything Solar, Going Green, Green Living, go green. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.