Nor are the consequences of all this smoke and heat trivial. It takes about 45 megawatts of electricity to power one of these furnaces – enough to power a small town. It is, says Moe, frankly impossible to turn quartz into silicon at scale without emitting carbon dioxide, which means that even if the electricity powering the furnace is generated from hydropower, these silicon smelters would still be contributing to global carbon emissions.
