World's largest solar silicon plant kicks off

Remember when Greenbang told you about the silicon shortage driven by solar panel demand? Sure you do. Yeah, you do. (If you don’t, then you can always read more about it here here, of course.)

With necessity being the mother of invention and all that, it looks like the world’s largest silicon plant is getting the go ahead. Greentechmedia says AE Polysilicon could start work on the Pennsylvania plant later this month:

AE Polysilicon plans to have the capacity to produce 1,500 metric tons of silicon per year in its first phase this year, then by 2010 ramp up to 12,000 tons annually. Today, that would make it the world’s largest silicon plant.

At last month’s meeting, a staff engineer at AE Polysilicon said the company expects that approximately 50 percent of its initial production will go to “one of the largest solar manufacturers in Taiwan,” while the other 50 percent will be available to other solar manufacturers.