Silicone A-Plenty

Manufacturers of semi-conductors are facing market adjustment.
Silicon producers want to double their production by 2010. Although the demand for the raw material is growing rapidly, it is unlikely to be able to keep pace with the planned expansion speed. It will be tricky especially for newcomers: They will only be able to keep pace with the established giants if they rapidly reduce their production costs.

Canadian metal processor, Timminco, once celebrated as the new star in solar heaven, has fallen. Three years ago, when ultrapure polysilicone was scarce and expensive, company boss Heinz Schimmelbusch promised: His company would soon supply the solar industry with abundant affordable supplies. Timminco’s plan: A new manufacturing procedure and the rapid expansion of capacities to almost 20000 tonnes per year by the middle of 2009 should break the oligopoly of the dominating producers of Hemlock and Wacker. While these obtain their silicone expensively using distillation in Siemens reactors, Timminco cleans untreated silicone so that it becomes semi-conducting. According to the Canadians’ advertisement, this reduced the costs but detracted virtually nothing from the quality of the semi-conductor.

The solar industry did not have to have its arm twisted and ordered: Cell manufacturer, Q-Cells alone ordered more than 20000 tonnes of the upgraded metallurgic silicone (UMG-Si) from Timminco for the period between 2008 and 2013 – enough for at least two gigawatt (GW) cells. In the meantime, the solar industry no longer uses the once miracle substance: Q-Cells and other customers have retracted their orders. Therefore, Timminco has completely ceased production. “We will start again when demand is sufficient,” says Schimmelbusch.