Tis created from materials that contain silicon like quartz sand and heated at high temperatures in excess of 1700°C in an electric arc furnace to purify the silicon and separate it from other elements and compounds with which it was originally mixed. After a few more processing steps (ending with a variations of the Siemens Process), the result is poly-crystalline silicon chunks. Next, variants of the Czochralski Process are used where the poly-crystalline silicon material is melted/liquefied and a seed crystal is introduced to the molten silicon from which a cylindrical mono-crystalline ingot is pulled. The cylindrical ingot is then mechanically sliced with saws into semi-octagonal mono-crystalline wafers. Finally, the mono-crystalline wafer has several processes done to it (doping, metallization, surface texturing, etc) that turn it into a mono-crystalline solar cell ready for use inside PV modules.