For our last day in Norway we started the day out with a bus ride into Kristiansand to visit Elkem Solar. At this plant they have several different stages of production and pieces of the solar industry. We learned about the different processes that are a part of breaking down the silicon and using different removal processes to get rid of impurities such as Boron and Phosphorous.
After learning about the Silicon and solar panel part of their company, we were given the opportunity to learn about the research and development piece of the company which makes up around 10% of the work they do. During these presentations we learned about thermoelectric designs for utilizing energy and looked at a few of the other smaller projects they were working on. It was a beautiful day so after touring the plant everyone went into downtown Grimstad and got ice cream at the harbor and walked around town.
