Greentech Media

ET Solar hasn't announced any silicon deals this year, but it did announce in June that it began producing silicon ingots and could get ingots of high quality "at any time."

Lighting the Rings

In any case, the company apparently has enough silicon to supply the Olympics with solar power.

The 2008 games won't be the first to features solar power. RWE Schott Solar provided panels for a 33-kilowatt solar roof at the 2004 Olympic games in Athens.

But, according to Xinhua, the Chinese government's news agency, the country plans to outfit the Olympic village with enough solar power to light 80 to 90 percent of its street lights and enough solar water heating to warm 90 percent of the hot water used.

While 11 kilowatts isn't much, Fried said ET Solar's project is an important gesture.

"The more gestures being put out there, like the Olympics, the more the average person will be getting exposed," she said. "People need to see solar in average settings to see that it will be everywhere. Of course, the fact is that Beijing is just so polluted it is having to close down factories for the Olympics, so compared to that, [the solar project] is just a gesture."