HPQ Silicon announces international development agreement with solar silicon specialist Apollon Solar

HPQ Silicon Resources Inc. is pleased to announce the signing of a partnership with Apollon Solar SAS. Apollon is a private French company that has become one of the world’s leaders in renewable energies, and the development of processes to make high purity silicon metal for photovoltaic conversion used in high performance solar cells.

    Share

    THIRD PARTY VALIDATION OF THE POTENTIAL FOR THE PUREVAP SOLAR GRADE SILICON PROCESS
    Before concluding the partnership, Apollon completed a technological audit of th e potential of the innovative PUREVAP TM process, that PyroGenesis Canada Inc. (“PCI”), a leader in the design, development, manufacture and marketing of advanced plasma processes, is developing for HPQ.
    Its conclusions were as follows:
    • PUREVAP TM is a unique metallurgical process, based on the innovative plasma technology that is at the heart of PyroGenesis’s expertise,
    • PUREVAP TM is a new metallurgical process (patent pending held by HPQ) for the production of solar grade silicon metal,
    •Successful commercial scaling-up of the PUREVAP TM process will lead to the production of solar quality silicon at a significantly lower cost compared to those of competing process technologies (examples include Siemens chemical process, Elkem Solar, Silicor Materials, etc.)
    Bernard Tourillon, Chairman and CEO of HPQ Silicon stated: “This collaboration with Apollon Solar represents a significant validation, by a leader in the solar industry, of the potential for the innovative metallurgical production of Solar Silicon using PUREVAP TM.
    The addition of Apollon’s expertise to the knowledge of Pyrogenesis will take our development efforts of the GEN 2 PUREVAP TM and Pilot Plant to the forefront of innovative development in the solar industry.”
    APOLLON: A GREAT ADDITION TO THE TECHNOLOGICAL TEAM OF HPQ’S PUREVAP TM
    PROJECT
    For nearly 20 years Apollon has invested time and money in Solar Silicon, and has become one of the world leaders in the development of processes to make solar grade silicon metal refined metallurgically “SoG Si UMG” that can generate high performance Solar Cells”.
    Apollon’s achievements include:
    • Being the first to manufacture entirely monocrystalline Czochralski (“Cz”) ingots made with 100% “SoG Si UMG”;
    • In previous collaboration with solar cell partners, Apollon obtained conversion efficiencies of over 2 0% with monocrystalline ingots;
    • Has obtained, with the ANU (Australian National University) and independently confirmed by
    Frau nhofer ISE, a world record conversion efficiency of 21.1% with monocrystalline ingots, for a solar cell made with “ SoG Si UMG”.

    Links