The formation mechanism and properties of the boron-oxygen center responsible for the degradation of Czochralski-grown Si(B) solar cells during operation is investigated using density functional calculations. We find that boron traps an oxygen dimer to form a bistable defect with a donor level in the upper half of the band gap. The activation energy for its dissociation is found to be 1.2 eV. The formation of the defect from mobile oxygen dimers, which are shown to migrate by a Bourgoin mechanism under minority carrier injection, has a calculated activation energy of 0.3 eV. These energies and the dependence of the generation rate of the recombination center on boron concentration are in good agreement with observations.