Canadian Start-up Secures Funding for Silicon Production

July 12, 2006

"The approach will also allow for the recovery and reuse of waste silicon, which could potentially reduce silicon production costs significantly."

-- Ian MacLellan, ARISE CEO

Kitchener, Ontario [RenewableEnergyAccess.com] Ontario-based ARISE Technologies Corp. made strides this week toward its goal of demonstrating what it says will be a new approach for refining high-purity solar-grade silicon.

The company received a $6.5 million funding commitment from Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC), a foundation created by the Government of Canada that operates a $550 million fund to support the development and demonstration of a broad array of clean technologies.

ARISE will receive these funds over a three year period once a final SDTC funding arrangement has been executed and specific project milestones met. The $6.5 million rounds out what is needed for the total project cost of $19.8 million. SDTC's contribution is in addition to a $13.3 million funding commitment from a consortium that is led by ARISE . The consortium includes Ebner Gesellschaft M.B.H., Komag Inc., Topsil Semiconductor Materials A/S, the University of Toronto and the University of Waterloo.

Ian MacLellan, ARISE's CEO, said the funding both marks a significant advancement for ARISE and shows tremendous third-party validation of its approach.

"A major constraint in the PV value chain has been the supply of silicon," MacLellan said. "The ARISE approach is designed to demonstrate a new technique that produces silicon feedstock that can be fed into the ingot-making process that produces crystalline silicon ingots for solar cells. The approach will also allow for the recovery and reuse of waste silicon, which could potentially reduce silicon production costs significantly."

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