Production increases at REC site

Moses Lake plant sees indirect benefits

OSLO, Norway — As Renewable Energy Corporation works to build a $600 million expansion in Moses Lake, the company is increasing production of polysilicon and solar cells.

Last week REC announced it is increasing polysilicon production capacity through de-bottlenecking at its plant in Butte, Mont. Polysilicon is made by converting silane gas, from the first production step, into a solid metal through Siemens reactors. The project includes adding silane gas production capacity and modifying a third of the Siemens reactors installed at the plant. Total project investment amount to approximate $50 million.

From the first quarter of 2008, the de-bottlenecking project increases silane gas production by approximately 2,000 metric tons and polysilicon production by approximately 1,000 metric tons. Around one-third of the new silane gas produced is sold as gas to such markets as electronics, thin film transistor, liquid crystal displays and photovoltaic.

REC Silicon CEO Goran Bye oversees REC's facilities in Butte and Moses Lake. He said the Butte expansion will not have any impact upon the Moses Lake plant at all, but will increase the Montana plant's output, implementing some things already in place in Moses Lake in order to increase the Butte plant's output and save on energy.

The REC Corporation organization decided to more than quadruple its solar cell production and double its solar module production by 2008. The company's production of cells and modules increases from today's 45 megawatt level to a total of 225 megawatts in cells and 100 megawatts in modules.

Both expansion projects are being initiated immediately through extensions of the existing cell plant in Narvik, Norway, and the module plant in Glava, Sweden. Total investment related to cell expansion amounts to approximate 700 million Norwegian krone.

"The expansion in Norway is indirectly a good thing for us here because it means REC has more control on where the polysilicon to the PV (photovoltaic) market is actually going," Bye said. "It goes through the entire company value chain."

Ramp-up of module capacity begins in the fourth quarter of 2007 and includes a significant increase in automation of existing production. Total investment of the solar module expansion is approximately 100 million in Norwegian krone. The expansions create approximately 175 new jobs in Narvik and 20 new jobs in Glava.

Erik Thorsen, president and CEO of REC, said in a release the increased production of polysilicon will unlock significantly more of the Butte facility's potential in terms of production capacity and cost. Increasing cell and module business will leverage REC's "strong" position in polysilicon and wafers, he added.

Bye said the expansions in productivity indirectly assists the $600 million expansion because REC Silicon intends to sell about 67 percent of the new capacity in Moses Lake through REC.

"This expansion … is actually just making sure that we actually have customers," he said. "So indirectly, it helps. Directly, well, we probably could have sold it to the open market if we wanted to, but this way we have full control on the value chain."