AJC.com reported today with Reuters that the IBM Corp. is announcing on Tuesday that it has developed a way to easily refurbish scrap material left over from the creation of microchips so it can be used in solar energy panels, a process that could save money and help feed the solar industry's appetite for silicon.

AJC.com reported today with Reuters that the IBM Corp. is announcing on Tuesday Big Blue is saying it plans to share the technique with the semiconductor industry. Analysts say it could be widely adopted.

AJC.com reported today with Reuters that the IBM Corp. is announcing on Tuesday that the semiconductor industry imprints patterns on silicon wafers to build the chips used in computers, video games, cell phones and other electronics. A small fraction of these thin silicon discs are scrapped, adding up to more than 3 million wafers discarded worldwide each year, according to industry and IBM estimates.

The scrap wafers, etched with patterns that companies consider intellectual property, are often crushed and sent to landfills.

AJC.com reported today with Reuters that the IBM Corp. is announcing on Tuesday that IBM's new process uses existing wafer-polishing equipment to erase the patterns, said Thom Jagielski, environmental manager at the IBM chip plant in Burlington, Vt., that developed the technique. He said this allows wafers to be reused for equipment testing and later be sold to solar panel manufacturers.

The 3 million scrapped wafers each year could be used to create solar panels to power 6,000 houses, AJC.com reported today with Reuters that the IBM Corp. is announcing on Tuesday that IBM said.