Question: where does silicon for solar panels come from

title: Polycrystalline silicon
text: Polysilicon is produced from metallurgical grade silicon by a chemical purification process , called the Siemens process . This process involves distillation of volatile silicon compounds , and their decomposition into silicon at high temperatures . An emerging , alternative process of refinement uses a fluidized bed reactor . The photovoltaic industry also produces upgraded metallurgical - grade silicon ( UMG - Si ) , using metallurgical instead of chemical purification processes . When produced for the electronics industry , polysilicon contains impurity levels of less than one part per billion ( ppb ) , while polycrystalline solar grade silicon ( SoG - Si ) is generally less pure . A few companies from China , Germany , Japan , Korea and the United States , such as GCL - Poly , Wacker Chemie , OCI , and Hemlock Semiconductor , as well as the Norwegian headquartered REC , accounted for most of the worldwide production of about 230,000 tonnes in 2013 . 

Answer: answer: Polysilicon is produced from metallurgical grade silicon by a chemical purification process. When produced for the electronics industry, polysilicon contains impurity levels of less than one part per billion, while polycrystalline solar grade silicon is generally less pure. A few companies from China, Germany, Japan, Korea and the United States accounted for most of the worldwide production.