WACKER POLYSILICON Expands Polysilicon Capacity at Burghausen, Germany
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WACKER POLYSILICON continues to expand polysilicon production at its Burghausen site in Germany. Capacity will be ramped up in two stages: from 2006, annual production will rise by 500 metric tons, and by another 1,000 metric tons from 2007. After the expansion program is complete, up to 6,500 metric tons of polysilicon will be produced annually at Burghausen. The investment, totaling approx. EUR 75 million, is mainly due to increased global demand for polycrystalline silicon needed to manufacture solar cells. As a result, some 50 new jobs will be created at the Burghausen site.
The expansion project aims to make available sufficient polysilicon production capacity in the mid term. "The high-growth solar market is causing noticeable bottlenecks worldwide among photovoltaics and electronics producers," says Ewald Schindlbeck, head of the WACKER POLYSILICON Business Division. "Our expansion program has ideally equipped WACKER for the sustained run on solar-grade silicon."
To pursue new avenues of processing photovoltaics-grade silicon crystals, WACKER POLYSILICON is developing an innovative process for producing granular polysilicon. Known as the fluidized-bed process, the new method uses trichlorosilane as a raw material. The advantages of silicon granules are not only their suitability for continuous crystallization processes but also their improved cost-effectiveness in the production of solar-grade silicon. The first two pilot reactors are expected to start operating in October 2004.
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