Sand can make solar cells Sahara Desert variable power station

Recently, Hidetomi Koinuma (74 years old), a visiting professor at the University of Tokyo, Japan, and others conducted joint research with the Oran University of Science and Technology in Algeria, and found that desert sand can be used to make cheaper silicon materials for solar cells, thereby greatly reducing the manufacturing cost of solar panels.

At the same time, Koinuma also said that it will not be an impossible dream
to spread solar cells on the Sahara Desert to turn it into a giant solar power station.

It is understood that most of the silicon materials currently used in the manufacture of solar cells are converted to ultra-high purity semiconductor silicon materials
produced through complex processes.
However, silicon materials for solar cells do not need to be of such high purity, so Koinuma and others believe that silicon materials for solar cells can be created in two simple processes using inexhaustible sand from the desert instead of the usual silica
.

At present, the laboratory has realized the method of using sand to prepare silicon materials for solar cells, and since then a larger reactor has been built and transferred to Algeria for experiments, where production
has been successfully achieved.
It is understood that this manufacturing method consumes less than one-fifth
of the energy of traditional processes.

It is reported that the researchers also plan to lay the solar cells created in the desert with strong sunshine in the future, and then use the generated electricity to increase the production of solar cells to double the power generation
.