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From: richard@pegasus.com (Richard Foulk)
Newsgroups: sci.energy,sci.electronics,sci.physics
Subject: Re: solar cells
Message-ID: <1991Jan4.234853.29630@pegasus.com>
Date: 4 Jan 91 23:48:53 GMT
References: <1991Jan3.072059.20842@loop.uucp>
Organization: Pegasus,  Honolulu
Lines: 20

>>|  Solar power: no digging, no processing, energy is converted from 
>>|sunlight, no remains.
>
>Most solar cells are made with processes that are similar to those used to
>make integrated circuits.  A big IC fab turns out on the order of a million
>wafers a year, and turns out tens of thousands of gallons of liquid toxic waste
>and hundreds of thousands of cubic feet of gaseous waste in the process.  
>A million 6 inch wafers is about 20,000 square meters.
>
> [... lots of wild guesses based on a pretty shaking premise elided]

I'm certainly not an expert, but the similarity between solar cell production
and IC manufacture might easily be out-weighted by their differences.

IC production requires a number of additional processes that don't seem
applicable to solar cells.  Does anyone have real information to add?


-- 
Richard Foulk		richard@pegasus.com