How Are Polycrystalline Solar Panels Made

Monocrystalline solar panels are produced from one large silicon block and are produced in silicon wafer formats.

How are polycrystalline solar panels made. Polycrystalline solar panels are also referred to as multi crystalline or many crystal silicon. The manufacturing process involves cutting individual wafers of silicon that can be affixed onto a solar panel. These panels are made of silicon. 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.

To make the cells of polycrystalline panel fragments of silicon are melted together to form the wafers. Polycrystalline solar panelare also known as poly solar panel multi crystalline or many crystal silicon panel. From there the grade must be further purified into polysilicon the solar grade purity of which is 99 999 percent. 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.

The cells are made using one of two different materials monocrystalline or polycrystalline. Polysilicon is produced from metallurgical grade silicon by a chemical purification process called the siemens process. Polycrystalline solar panels are also made from silicon. This cooling process causes multiple crystals to form.

Mono crystalline silicon cells are more efficient than polycrystalline or amorphous solar cells. A polycrystalline solar panel sometimes called multicrystalline is made from polycrystalline solar cells like this one. 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.

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. Although polycrystalline solar panels are also composed of silicon it does not involve the use of single crystal silicon. Because there are many crystals in each cell. For this reason they are called poly or multi crystalline.