“With the intrinsic energy requirements for silicon foundries, it doesn’t seem likely that crystalline silicon solar PV cells will ever be made by solar PV in an end-to-end energy process.”

This statement makes no sense. Silicon crystals are made in induction furnaces using electricity. Why would you suggest that this electricity cannot be PV in origin. Of course storage is necessary but there are plenty of storage solutions. People who claim industrial process can never be powered by batteries are clearly hiding from the truth which is that there are dozens of alternative battery chemistries that can overcome the supply issues such as sodium batteries. Non scarce resources can make batteries cheap and effective even for industrial uses like polysilicon manufacturing. Besides, pumped hydro is already being used for this purpose.

Moreover, with HVDC over sufficient distances, storage becomes less of an issue as the sun’s energy can be converted across time zones. It is simply not the case that PV cannot be used to manufacture PV. This is already being done in China with pumped hydro. Perovskites are a red herring. The West needs to get off its ass and start producing polysilicon but it will never happen in the US. The US is a petro state plain and simple. The US is a lost cause as far as renewables are concerned because its industrial policy is completely in the hands of oil oligarchs that run both political parties.

“Since a gigantic expansion wave is currently underway in China, the country’s share in the global polysilicon output will grow even further: to more than 90%. In wafer, solar cell and module production, the Chinese industry has already reached such or still higher market shares.”

This has pushed the resource ownership and the balance of the supply chain has shifted to China and this country will suffer depending on China’s supply chain to keep the move towards solar PV that will decarbonize the grid. The World as a whole cannot compete to what China has already done. A technology leap to perhaps layered perovskites and thin film would be a better technology gamble for the U.S. and other countries to develop and manufacture. You could probably manufacture Perovskite solar PV panels using Perovskite solar PV panels to power the manufacturing line. With the intrinsic energy requirements for silicon foundries, it doesn’t seem likely that crystalline silicon solar PV cells will ever be made by solar PV in an end-to-end energy process.