centrotherm SiTec continues its success path in silicon business

BLAUBEUREN, GERMANY: centrotherm SiTec GmbH is underscoring its leading market position with the commissioning of a further major polysilicon production facility.

The photovoltaics specialists from Blaubeuren designed a high-performance manufacturing facility with an annual production capacity of 2,500 tonnes, and a further upgrade option, for the Guodian Ningxia Solar Co. subsidiary of state operation China Guodian Corporation. The quality of the polysilicon produced on First Silicon Out (FSO) exceeds standard sector expectations.

Guodian, one of China's largest conventional energy generation companies, is diversifying into renewable energies, and has opted entirely for the development, technology and equipment know-how for polysilicon manufacturing available from centrotherm SiTec, a company in which the centrotherm Group bundles its silicon expertise.

This 100 percent subsidiary of centrotherm photovoltaics AG was responsible for the entire factory planning, and supplied the basic engineering, process know-how, and reactors and converters that are required for silicon manufacturing.

"This very ambitious and demanding project is distinguished particularly by the fact that the factory must satisfy two different product quality requirements – not only the high quality grade for solar cells, but also the even higher quality standard for the microelectronics”, comments Dr. Albrecht Mozer, MD of centrotherm SiTec.

"In addition, the FSO deadline was reached at an express rate within two and a quarter years, significantly faster than comparable projects in the industry."

Around six weeks ago, the company reported on the largest FSO in its company's history at Taiwan PolySilicon Corp. (TPSI), with an annual production capacity of 5,000 tonnes, and an upgrade option to 8,000 tonnes. Current global polysilicon production volume is around 100,000 to 110,000 tonnes per year.

In terms of reactors and converters, the key equipment for polysilicon manufacturing, centrotherm SiTec has a global market share of around 40 percent, and an even higher share in terms of complete factory design.