Silicor Materials Announces Production of PERC Mono Cells at 20% Efficiency Using Its Standard Solar Silicon

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Silicor Materials, Inc., a manufacturer of high-quality solar silicon and aluminum by-products, announced today that in its first ever attempt, the company has produced p-type mono PERC (Passivated Emitter Rear Cell) cells at approximately 20 percent efficiency, using 100 percent of its standard silicon feedstock.

“We are extremely pleased with the results of this first attempt at mono cell production,” says Alain Turenne, Chief Technical Officer at Silicor Materials. “These results show the power of our process to produce silicon of such high quality that even the demands of a mono PERC cell architecture are well within reach.”

A small mono boule was expertly grown and wafered at Fraunhofer CSP’s lab for crystallization technology in Germany, and then converted into cells by a manufacturing partner. The result demonstrates that Silicor’s low cost, high quality feedstock can be used to make mono-crystals using the Czochralski method, as well as high efficiency monocrystalline solar cells. These results further confirm that Silicor’s breakthrough technology for manufacturing solar grade silicon provides the solar market with a simple solution to manufacturing the highest quality, highest efficiency solar cells of the future at a substantially lower cost than all other solar grade silicon manufacturing technologies on the market today.

“These results come at no surprise to the Silicor team but will to some of our competitors, who have become wedded to very expensive methods to manufacture solar grade silicon,” said Terry Jester, CEO of Silicor Materials. “Our results with mono PERC cells are only the beginning. We will continue our work with perfecting the manner in which our material is integrated into mono wafer manufacturing and expect even better results in the future. Silicor Materials has significant experience in using its material in multi-crystalline applications and has a track record of continuous improvement in cell efficiency. This news is certain to be welcomed by customers and investors alike.”