Main objective of the Sahara project was to set up a task force to act as a leverage towards the setting up of Solar Grade Silicon (SoG-Si) production plants.
The Project was carried out within the Altener II Programme of the European Union 1998-2002) Contract n. 4.1030/Z/00-
The Project derived from two past studies carried out by BAYER and LIFE within EPIA under the Altener I Programme the first denominated “Photovoltaics in 2010” [ALTN1] in 1995-1997 and the second denominated “Present and likely future bottlenecks analysis for a sustainable photovoltaic policy” [ALTN2] in 1998-1999.
From those studies, and in particular from the second one, clearly emerged that a feedstock crisis would have happened towards 2005 unless something was done towards the production of SoG-Si; in this respect the authors were among the first to detect this problem. Infact at that time no industrial Si producers would have thought to produce Silicon for the PV Industry also in view of the very good electronic market in the same period against the crisis which hit it later.
The task force was made of the following partners with LIFE acting as the coordinator of the pull of companies involved and in this role LIFE was the main author of this final report with contributions received from its research and training Association Edenet onlus and from all partners:
è
Deutsche Solar
è ECN
è JRC ISPRA - Institute for Environment and Sustainability - Renewable Energies Unit
è
Scatec
è
Transenergie
A close technical cooperation among task force partners and external relevant parties was generated also in view of the very good interpersonal relationships. This was very important to carry out a complete assessment at world-wide level of the current status of accomplished and on-going researches and industrial developments in the field of silicon production processes for solar cells applications; Authors believe that it is the most updated, clear and objective document existing in the sector. This evaluation was on one side the basis for the analysis/revision of the [ALTN2] Study which was critically reviewed and validated in its main statements and on the other side it assisted into the definition of the most suitable technologies for further industrial development.
Several Scientific and Technical Analyses, Studies, Conferences, Interviews and Private Meetings were carried out to reach objective conclusions.
The complete work
is documented in this Executive Summary and four Volumes and it includes also
the Proceedings of a European Workshop held at Gelsenkirchen on 7th
May 2002 and which certainly represents a milestone towards a European route to
SoG-Si production.
A conclusive compared analysis of the main objectives which the study Sahara pursued and the results obtained was carried out in a synthetic way and it is enclosed hereinafter under the form of statements for a more clear reading.