Wacker cranks up polysilicon production

MUNICH, Germany — Against the background of climbing polysilicon demand for photovoltaic applications, Wacker Chemie announced to significantly increase its production. A certain percentage of the additional output, however, may also be sold into the semiconductor industry.

Wacker plans to invest €400 million (about $535 million) in expanding its existing polysilicon production in Burghausen, Germany. Presently, the company has a production capacity of 6.500 metric tons of polysilicon per year. The plans announced Thursday (June 14) provide for an additional capacity of 7.000 tons annually. Together with another expansion program already under way, the company now aims at a production capacity of 21.500 tons per year.

The program introduced now, dubbed 'Expansion stage 8' is scheduled to launch production by end of 2009 and to reach full capacity by 2010. The installation will create 200 jobs.

While the lion's share of the production is targeted for the photovoltaics (PV) industry, the company can also produce semiconductor-grade silicon at the site, a company spokesperson explained. "Our technology gives us the ability to switch from PV silicon to chip silicon by the push of a button", he said. However, with demand from PV industry skyrocketing, he expects that the biggest part of the output will be dedicated to the solar industry.

Also Thursday, German solar cell manufacturer Q-Cells announced during its annual general meeting plans to launch a polysilicon wafer production for its captive market. The company has already signed a contract with Elkem Solar for the supply of the raw silicon. Q-Cells plans to launch wafer production in 2009; the target capacity is 240 MWp.