REC Silicon breaks ground on $600 million expansion
Matthew Weaver/Columbia Basin HeraldSpeakers turn dirt at the groundbreaking ceremony for REC Silicon's $600 million expansion Tuesday morning. The patch of dirt is located in the center of what will eventually be a 20-story new building.
New plant will be 20 stories tall
MOSES LAKE — When he stepped up to the podium, Goran Bye wanted to share what his company's expansion actually meant.
"We sometimes have some problems with telling people what we actually do out here," the REC Silicon CEO said. So he decided to try to describe the company's expansion, announced earlier this year, in numbers other than those which the audience for the groundbreaking ceremony were already well acquainted.
The expansion is presently estimated to cost roughly $600 million, and the existing plant will be upgraded for approximately $35 million more, to increase its safety and environmental guards.
"You've heard $600 million, and you've heard 6,500 tons of polysilicon, but that doesn't tell you much, I think," Bye said. "We're going to build a plant that is nearly 20 stories tall, we're going to use some 5,000 tons of steel, we're going to use some 17,000 cubic yards of concrete, we're going to put in some 50 miles of piping, we're going to put in tens of thousands of valves and instruments, and we're going to spend some 2.5 million work hours doing that."
Bye concluded those figures by adding, "That's what costs $600 million," to applause from the crowd.
When the construction phase on the expanded project reaches its peak point, Bye said there will be more than 900 construction workers on site. Those workers will spend time and money in the Moses Lake community.
"I would also, beforehand, apologize for any disturbance that might come up," Bye added wryly, eliciting more chuckles from the crowd.
When the expansion is operational, about two years from now, about 100 new jobs will join the 250 already working at REC.
"From payroll taxes and local purchases, we will spend around $30 million a year in addition to the $35 million a year that we already spend in the local community," Bye said.
The polysilicon manufactured at the plant will go into solar cells. Bye tried to present a picture of what that means as well, explaining there is already an approximately 25 percent chance any solar cell has REC silicon inside. At least 50 percent of laptop computers or flat-panel display televisions or monitors also have REC silicon products inside.
The new plant will possess new technology, making it energy conservative, Bye said, to the point where the solar cells made in one year of production will pay back eight times more energy than was spent to make it. One year's production of solar cells is sufficient to power 75,000 to 80,000 homes.
"If we think that this plant will live 25 to 30 years, it means that we produce silicon, that will in turn produce solar cells to energize some 2 million homes around the globe," Bye said. "So, now you know what we do out there."
The ceremony's other speakers — REC Silicon Senior Vice President and Project Manager Tor Hartmann, REC CEO Erik Thorsen, Grant County Commissioner Richard Stevens, Moses Lake Mayor Ron Covey, Rep. Janea Holmquist, R-Moses Lake and Oscar Cerda from Gov. Chris Gregoire's office — all took turns shoveling dirt from a spot which will ultimately be the exact center of the new 20-story building.
Thorsen said in his remarks that REC is a front runner in the solar industry, the leading producer of solar-grade silicon in the world, all from its plants in Moses Lake and Butte, Mont. The company is the largest producer of wafers, the next step in the process after the silicon production, and also has a meaningful position in cells and modules. The Moses Lake and Butte activities are cornerstones in becoming possibly the world's top provider of solar energy producers, he continued, and the expansion project will further secure REC's position.
"We considered a lot of aspects, and part of those were the costs of the material that they're using," Thorsen said of REC's decision to locate the expansion on the Moses Lake site after his remarks . "The electricity prices here are lower, and as we are using electricity as a substantial component in our manufacturing, that was one of the key factors that made it turn in the favor of Moses Lake."
Covey outlined the history of the facility and the company, including efforts in the 1990s to entice then-Advanced Silicon Materials, Inc., or ASiMI, to expand its production facilities. Due to extenuating circumstances, he said, the project was awarded to Butte, but after rumors began to swirl in 2005 of REC Silicon's expansion, business and community leaders saw a second opportunity with the company.
"Many meetings and many discussions took place," Covey said, adding that a combined effort "apparently convinced REC's board that this was their home away from home."
Hartmann said the ceremony signified the point when the years of preparatory work turned into something physical.
"It's going to take us a couple years of construction, but by the time we're done, we will have a facility that has no equal in the world," he said.r
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