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The world needs clean, climate-friendly, renewable energy sources. But how exactly will photovoltaic (PV) solar energy fit into tomorrow’s energy picture?
At REC, we believe that PV solar will rapidly become a vital source of energy, particularly for meeting peak demand and energy security needs. This will be driven by the strengths of PV energy itself, but regulatory support is still needed for a number of years still.
The potential of PV solar as a beneficial energy source is unlimited. First of all, it is extremely clean. The environmental benefits will be enormous if the growth potential PV is capitalized, and PV is the fastest growing renewable energy technology. Secondly, solar energy is an infinite resource, and no technological or physical limitations to growth in PV have been identified.
Read more about the race to make clean, solar-based energy affordable and widely available in the section solar competitiveness.
REC is focused on innovating for value in solar technology. We are discovering and bringing to life the technologies that can make affordable, clean solar energy a reality for more people.
REC deploys significant resources into developing and industrializing technical and process innovations across the solar energy value chain. REC has introduced a series of innovations to the solar industry, and continues to build on an IPR portfolio counting more than 50 patents granted and about 200 patents pending.
A major achievement in our commitment to reducing cost by innovation is REC's proprietary deposition technology - FBR. This technology produces solar grade polysilicon at significantly lower cost than the traditional Siemens process. The energy savings in the silicon refining process can be up to 80-90 percent. REC is now in high-volume production of granular polysilicon using the FBR technology at our Moses Lake plant in Washington, USA. Read more.
REC makes solar panels with solar cells made from silicon because we consider this to be the best way of generating electricity from sunlight.
The overall performance delivered by silicon solar cells considerably surpasses that of competing photovoltaic solar technologies. The common approach of all commercial photovoltaic technologies is to use layers of semi-conducting material to convert solar energy into electricity. Thin film modules use less semi-conducting materials, but this causes lower performance. In addition, some thin film technologies use scarce raw materials in their production, while silicon production is only limited by the refining capacity.
REC is one of very few completely integrated solar companies, which means that REC is involved in every aspect from silicon refining to wafer and cell creation, solar panel manufacturing, systems and project development. Read more about the REC value chain.
View animation of the photovoltatic value chain