A question regarding the home made solar panel?

Question

Ok first of all, is it possible to extract silicon from silicon dioxide or silicone in a cheap way? Second of all even if I buy silicon is it possible to make it into a silicon solar panel. By the way I do posess some knowledge on the topic of solar panels and am not another naive kid who wants to know how to make a solar panel but does not have the means or the knowledge to do so.

Answer 1

It takes about $10M in specialized equipment.  Maybe you can buy used equipment, especially in Silicon Valley for about $1M to make a silicon fab plant.  Then comes the clean room and floor space the staff to run the machines.  The other alternative is to buy a semiconductor fab company.  There are some that are not doing so well.  You can do it without money out of your pocket.  This is done by a leverage buyout.  However you would need to convince investment bankers to put up the equity.  Basic short answer to your question is no!  Finish school first then get into the semiconductor business, invent a few semiconductor processes and then strick out on your own as an entrepeneur and look for VC money.  That's the shortest route.

Answer 2

It usually requires a lot of special equipment and chemicals to do this.

is there an easier way, sacrificing efficiency, to do it with less equipment? I don't know but I doubt it.