What are solar cells made of?
Solar cells take silicon wafer, silver and aluminum directly. Trace them back and you pass 18 made things on the way to 15 raw materials.
How solar cells are made See it on the map
What goes straight in
From the ground: 15 raw materials
- Quartz through silicon wafer
- Silver ore through silver
- Lead ore through silver
- Zinc ore through silver
- Copper ore through silver
- Crude oil through aluminum
- Coal through aluminum
- Air through silicon wafer, argon
- Sulfur through silver, sulfuric acid
- Water through silver, quicklime
- Limestone through silver, quicklime
- Bauxite through aluminum, alumina
- Timber through silicon wafer, polysilicon, metallurgical silicon
- Natural gas through silicon wafer, polysilicon, hydrogen
- Rock salt through aluminum, alumina, caustic soda