Chinese granular silicon superior, certificate shows

To support the country's effort to reduce carbon emissions and meet downstream demand for solar materials, Chinese photovoltaic supplier GCL-Poly Energy Holding has been working on a new project using advanced technologies.

On Oct 27, the company obtained a carbon footprint certificate for granular silicon issued by France's Agency of Environment and Energy Control. It is the first carbon footprint certification of its kind for a Chinese company issued by an international organization.

It shows China's favorable position globally in carbon reduction in the granular silicon field.

According to the certification, the company's carbon footprint in producing 1 kilogram of granular silicon is 37 kg carbon dioxide equivalent, much lower than the previous record of 57.559 kg by the German company Wacker Chemie.

As the world moves to control carbon emissions, granular silicon with a smaller carbon footprint will become more competitive on the market, while tackling the problem of high energy consumption and carbon emission in the production of silicon materials — the major material for photovoltaic solar cells — said Zhu Gongshan, chairman of GCL Group, the mother company of GCL-Poly.

He said GCL's mission is to continuously improve the living environment of mankind and bring green power to life.

"The Chinese government has great determination to cut carbon emissions and reach carbon neutrality. We are rising to our responsibility as a private enterprise in the process via our technology upgrades," he said.

Compared with traditional silicon ingots, granular silicon has advantages in cost efficiency, carbon emissions and quality, the company said. Based on many years of research and development of granular silicon technology, GCL-Poly has already secured several long-term orders from domestic downstream producers with an overall value in the billions of dollars.

The market price of domestic silicon material has been rising since July. The unit price roared to 230,000 yuan ($36,062) per ton.

Meanwhile, the company announced recently that it had added another 20,000 metric tons of annual production capacity for granular silicon to its existing 10,000 tons.