Silicon costs are a major contributor to expensive solar cells. However manufacturing processes and inputs such as industrial gases also add to the cost of manufacture significantly ,especially when the volume of production is large. Gases such as silane and nitroflouride make nearly 17 % of silicon thin film manufacturing cost . The Linde group says that alteration of the gases in manufacturing process might lead to millions in savings particularly at high volume manufacturing. Anish Tolia, market development manager for gas supplier Linde , predicts that gas-related improvements could directly cut costs by 8 cents per watt. Additionally the gases could also increase speed of production could reduce another of 5 cents per watt, .Tolia adds, “ Even if it’s a few cents per watt, at the 1-gigawatt scale, we’re talking about real money "
Altering manufacturing inputs makes sense too as the demand for inputs is bound to increase dramatically. Silane in particular is expected to be in high demand with the plethora of manufacturing facilities being planned across the globe. Anticipating this high demand , Linde group is planning a new Silane plant expected to begin production in early 2009.
