How Are Polycrystalline Solar Panels Made

To make the cells of polycrystalline panel fragments of silicon are melted together to form the wafers.

How are polycrystalline solar panels made. Polycrystalline silicon or multicrystalline silicon also called polysilicon or poly si is a high purity polycrystalline form of silicon used as a raw material by the solar photovoltaic and electronics industry. Polycrystalline is slightly cheaper but is less efficient so a solar panel made with monocrystalline cells will generate more energy than one made using polycrystalline cells but will be more expensive. Polycrystalline solar panel manufacturers melt multiple silicon fragments together to produce the wafers for these panels. Polycrystalline solar cells are manufactured like monocrystalline panels a seed crystal is placed into molten silica.

A polycrystalline solar panel sometimes called multicrystalline is made from polycrystalline solar cells like this one. The manufacturing process involves cutting individual wafers of silicon that can be affixed onto a solar panel. However instead of pulling out the silicon seed crystal the whole vat of silicon cools. Polycrystalline solar panels are also made from silicon.

Polycrystalline solar panels are also referred to as multi crystalline or many crystal silicon. Polycrystalline solar cells are cheaper to make than monocrystalline cells. For this reason they are called poly or multi crystalline. Although polycrystalline solar panels are also composed of silicon it does not involve the use of single crystal silicon.

These panels are made of silicon. From there the grade must be further purified into polysilicon the solar grade purity of which is 99 999 percent. However instead of using a single crystal of silicon manufacturers melt many fragments of silicon together to form the wafers for the panel. Polysilicon is produced from metallurgical grade silicon by a chemical purification process called the siemens process.

The silicon in solar panels is manufactured through a reduction process in which the silica is heated with a carbon material and the oxygen is removed leaving behind purer metallurgical grade silicon. Because there are many crystals in each cell. Monocrystalline solar panels are produced from one large silicon block and are produced in silicon wafer formats. This cooling process causes multiple crystals to form.