Solar Cells...

The other day my cousin from IIT had come home for dinner. He had just finished his internship at Tata BP Solar, Bangalore. His job was to study the vital factors in solar cell effectiveness and efficiency. A solar cell was then fabricated keeping optimum levels for these vital factors
He also had some interesting facts to share:
The source of silicon wafers for the manufacture of solar cells comes from the US and is not manufacture in India. There are a few reasons for this:
1. The fabrication itself is a highly automated process. Going by the labour intensive nature of Indian industries and the costs associated with setting up such a facility, neither the socio-political nor the economic environment would sustain such a plant.
2. The fabrication process requires a steady supply of clean water and uninterrupted, non-fluctuating power supply. With these resources being scarce even for the masses, it would do little sense to have these facilities for an automated plant. Also, assuming that these are made available, the power supply in India is still prone to too large a fluctuation to suit these micro-electronic fabrication instruments. IIT Mumbai alone has pegged its estimated losses at Rs 250,000 due to voltage fluctuations damaging their micro electronic equipment beyond repair.
3. Another factor is that the wastes generated out of the fabrication process is environmentally hazardous and requires special means of treatment. Both technology and infrastructure are required for this, which at the moment India lacks.
4. A small but valid concern is that Indians also do not have the skill set to support a fabrication industry.
Not everything however is done outside of the country. The solar cell creation requires creation of Pn junction diodes. The critical basic doping (wafer creation) is what is highly specialized. The layer doping for creation of a negative junction is done locally.
Today, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC) is the leading producer of these wafers. The USA and Israel are two other leading states with these technologies.