How come the silicon material become more and more expensive?

Question

I have search the web about the information of solar panel. People keep saying silicon become more and more expensive. I don't understand why since I think silicon can extract from sand, which we have more and more desert on the earth due to global warming. Even I know that there are more silicon demand for making computer chip, we should still have unlimited supply of silicon. Why people said the price of silicon keep going up? Is this price going up thing also a game from those business man like what they do in the oil market?

Answer 1

While you are correct that the raw material for silicon production is literally dirt cheap, there is another cost.  The refining of silicon is extremely energy intensive.  First, the silicon dioxide is heated with carbon to form crude silicon, similar to the refining process for iron.  However, the silicon used in solar panels and other electronic devices must be very, very pure.  The silicon is refined by a number of steps, all of which use energy.  The most common involve forming a volatile silicon compound such as trichlorosilane or silicon tetrachloride. This is distilled to purify it before converting it back to elemental silicon.

And obviously, energy prices have increased a lot lately, so it is logical that the price of electronic grade silicon has risen as well.