Birth of Solar Grade Silicon Banks on the Growth of the Solar Power Industry

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Banking on the prospect of increasing demand for solar electric power projects and photovoltaic cells, Advanced Silicon Materials Incorporated (ASiMI)(Butte, Montana), a subsidiary of Komatsu Limited (TSO:6301.T) (Tokyo, Japan), says it will finalize a deal any day now, with Renewable Energy Corporation (Oslo, Norway) to create a joint venture to produce polycrystalline silicon for solar applications. The joint venture, which will be known as Solar Grade Silicon LLC, will be the first polycrystalline silicon production plant dedicated strictly to solar grade silicon production.

Solar Grade Silicon hopes to reopen Advanced Silicon Material's currently closed semiconductor grade polycrystalline silicon manufacturing plant located in Moses Lake, Washington by the end of the year. Initial production of solar grade silicon will be done with existing equipment and process systems. Long-term plans include expansion of solar grade silicon production and possible conversion of the plant's process to a fluidized bed technology. The company will begin new process studies to determine if the technology is viable soon after restart of the Moses Lake operations.

ASiMI closed its Moses Lake plant and transferred all of its semiconductor grade polycrystalline silicon and silane manufacturing to its Butte, Montana operations early this year. Construction of the $250 million Butte facility began in 1996 and partial operations were initiated in 1998. A second phase of expansion at the Butte plant has never materialized due to the slumping semiconductor/personal computer industry.

Worldwide utilization of solar power is on the rise, riding a wave of increasing green energy development. The U.S. market should increase substantially as new solar projects, especially those on the U.S. Pacific Coast, are realized. (See related articles; California Rides a Wave of Solar Power...Like Sustainable and Bright Prospects For Large Scale Rooftop Solar Power Generation). Improving technology for photovoltaic cells is producing lower cost, higher performing solar panels. Solar grade silicon is a major constituent of solar (photovoltaic) panels.