Turkmenistan, Ashgabat, April 23 / Trend H.Hasanov /
Turkmenistan has obtained the first sample of industrial silicon from quartz sand using solar energy, the Neutral Turkmenistan newspaper said on Monday.
This article describes the activities of scientists of the Gun (Sun) Institute under the Academy of Sciences of Turkmenistan, who conducted several studies in the field of renewable energy sources.
"Among the most significant achievements are obtaining of the first sample of industrial silicon from quartz sand using solar energy," the article says.
The staff of the institute also designed an autonomous solar-wind complex, capable of during the year in the desert to provide water and energy for distant pastures.
Among other developments of the Institute is solar desalination plant, as well as plant, carrying out an autonomous supply of hot water and solar greenhouse with a heat-ground.
According to international experts, Turkmenistan may organize production of solar panels for export.
It could start with the production of raw material (monocrystalline or polycrystalline silicon) in Turkmenistan, with the advantage that the necessary energy for silicon production is very inexpensive because of the vast resources of oil and gas, even in medium-sized fields.
Experts believe that Turkmenistan will save huge amounts of money by using solar energy. To this end, the expansion of production technologies in the future is needed.
Climatic conditions of Turkmenistan allow to use almost year-round solar and wind energy.
In Turkmenistan, in July, the duration of daytime reaches 16 hours. The energy of the sun's rays falling on 1 square metre, is 800 watts.
Here, approximately 300 days per year are sunny, and the duration of sunny days reaches 2,500-3,000 hours.
Turkmenistan, as previously reported in the local media, is planning to create large-scale wind and solar energy complexes which will include solar photovoltaic stations, solar photobioreactors, dryers, desalination plants, wind and solar installations for waste disposal, solar collectors.
Turkmen specialists pointed out autonomous complexes of this kind can provide livelihoods of entire villages and livestock.
Turkmenistan is implementing the project, "Study of the possibility of producing silicon for solar photoelectric transformers," that in the future will bring the country into a number of the few states which have mastered the production of industrial silicon.
This will allows, first, to ensure the country with necessary raw materials for solar batteries, as well as to export this extremely scarce and expensive products.