Feedstock for crystalline silicon solar cells

A mandatory requirement for the development of a large solar photovoltaic power industry is the development a thin silicon layer structure or a cheaper silicon feedstock that does not have the high purity requirements of the semiconductor wafer industry. In the latter case the solar grade silicon feedstock supply must be decoupled from the semiconductor silicon feedstock industry. If one of these these events do not occur, then solar energy will remain a small and specialized industry that will start to shrink as the world power grid capacity increases.