Wacker Expands Polysilicon Production Ahead of Schedule
Probably welcome news to a solar industry in need of more supplies of high-purity polycrystalline silicon, Wacker Chemie is up and running with its latest production expansion.
Staff -- Semiconductor International, 11/20/2008
As the solar industry in particular struggles to secure enough supply of high-purity polysilicon, Wacker Chemie AG (Munich, Germany) announces that it is several months ahead of its polysilicon production expansion plans. Additional production facilities officially came on stream today at the company’s Burghausen site.
The first Expansion Stage 7 reactors are up and running, and the plant’s full nominal capacity of 4500 metric tons a year is expected to be reached before the end of Q1 2009. Overall, Wacker is investing €300 million in this expansion stage, thereby creating some 270 new jobs. Expanding output enables Wacker to meet soaring global demand for hyperpure polycrystalline silicon. The new facilities can manufacture material for both the booming solar sector and the semiconductor market.
The ongoing and planned extensions to Wacker’s Burghausen and Nünchritz sites will, by year-end 2011, boost annual polysilicon capacity from the current 10,000 to >35,000 tons, explained Ewald Schindlbeck, Wacker Polysilicon president, during the opening ceremony. By 2011, Wacker will have invested almost €2 billion in its capacity expansion program, which began back in 2000.
The current Expansion Stage 7 is fully linked with the Burghausen site’s integrated silicon production system. In this highly integrated material loop, byproducts are recycled as starter materials for use elsewhere in the supply chain. This cuts costs, while conserving resources and strengthening the site’s competitiveness. In total, polysilicon expansion will create some 650 new jobs at the Burghausen plant by late 2010.
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