A New Industry Approach To Solar Power

In this article the author reviews current levels of automation in solar photovoltaic applications and concentrated solar power. The development of the technology from which the solar industry benefits today dates back to the 1950s. Siemens' first notable achievement in this area was to produce ultra-pure monocrystalline silicon using zonal heating, which was followed by the invention of the Siemens reactor, a thermal decomposition furnace that enables the production of polycrystalline silicon. Both technologies are still widely used in the semiconductor and solar photovoltaic (PV) industries today.