NOVELTY - Producing silicon involves heating a material comprising silica and a hydrocarbon material to form a starting material containing silica and carbon; reacting the starting material to form an intermediate material comprising silica and silicon carbide; reacting the intermediate material to form silicon; collecting at least some of the emissions that are generated by forming the starting material and reacting the starting material or the intermediate material; and using the collected emissions to generate electric power.    USE - For producing silicon (claimed) useful for producing semiconductor devices and solar cells.    ADVANTAGE - The method allows to produce high purity solar grade silicon. In the method, when producing silicon, syngas (carbon monoxide and hydrogen) is generated as a result of carbothermic reduction of silica using hydrocarbon or carbon material, and this syngas comprises a combustible fuel that is fed to a power generation system and converted to electric power. This electric power is fed to a furnace used for producing the silicon. The recovery of waste energy enables a reduction in the overall energy usage of the furnace during production of silicon. Additionally green house gas emissions are reduced. Moreover, the method involves decomposing the hydrocarbon material to form carbon, which is deposited on at least a portion of the silica material with an accompanying release of hydrogen gas. When the coating comprising carbon is deposited on granules comprising silica, a surface area of carbon available for further reaction with silica is considerably higher than that available in conventional processes that do not employ this coating, and this lead to a better yield of solar grade silicon.    DETAILED DESCRIPTION - An INDEPENDENT CLAIM is included for a system (22) comprising: a furnace comprising a first furnace zone (32) configured to produce a starting material comprising silica and carbon; a second furnace zone (34) configured to receive the starting material and to react the starting material to form an intermediate material comprising silica and silicon carbide; a third furnace zone (36) configured to receive the intermediate material and to react the intermediate material to form silicon; and a power generation system (58) coupled to the furnace and configured to receive hydrogen and/or carbon monoxide, vented from the furnace to a power generation system for generating electric power.    DESCRIPTION OF DRAWING(S) - The figure shows a diagrammatical representation of a system used for producing silicon.    System for producing silicon (22)    First furnace zone (32)    Second furnace zone (34)    Third furnace zone (36)    Power generation system (58)