IBM to use Scrap Silicon to boost Solar Panel Industry

IBM has developed a simple process to recycle scrapped silicon wafers. Silicon wafers are thin discs of silicon that chip makers use to imprint chip patterns. From there, the wafers are cut into individual chips that run computers, cell phones, flash memory, etc.

The reason the solar panel industry needs this is because in recent years the industry has had 30% to 40% annual growth. This year the solar panel industry has tied with the computer industry as the world's largest consumer of refined silicon. Normally, a semiconductor company is reluctant to sell their scrapped wafers because of proprietary information left on them. But IBM has discovered this new method that would remove the circuit patterns and thus be able to recycle the material in house, or to sell it to the solar industry.

An estimated 3.3 million wafers are discarded annually. Any method of re-using or recycling these materials would be a benefit to the environment as well. I personally work in the semiconductor industry and am very pleased to learn this information. The semiconductor industry for one could probably use a little greening all around. All of there processes consume so much energy and they do output quite a large amount of harmful materials into our air. But for one, helping give the solar industry a boost is great for everyone. It could translate to cheaper solar panels for everyone in the coming years.

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