Post by pling on Feb 14, 2016 13:29:35 GMT
Fra timesfreepress.com 14. februar 2016
- Nearly five years after work started on the factory, the German company has begun making and selling the raw material that goes into solar power panels.
- The $2.4 billion plant — the largest single private manufacturing investment ever in Tennessee — has hired 500 people with plans to soon push that to 650. That's when operations go full bore in the second quarter of this year. The plant will produce 20,000 tons of polysilicon annually at full capacity.
- Bachhuber said the plant was built with expansion in mind, noting the current facility is only using about 40 percent of its land.
- In terms of the solar power market, Bachhuber said new installations grew 20 percent in the past year.
- The average price for polysilicon in 2012 plunged by some 42 percent and struggled through 2013, according to pv magazine. But as the economy has rebounded, prices rebounded in 2014.
- About 90 percent of the world's polysilicon supplies ended up in solar panels in 2014, up from 27 percent in 2001, according to GTM Research. While demand for panels is expected to climb 30 percent, polysilicon capacity is also increasing.
- Polysilicon production capacity currently stands at about 350,000 metric tons a year, and there are plans to increase that by at least 10 percent next year, according to New Energy Finance.
- Still, Wacker Chairman Peter-Alexander Wacker told Bloomberg late last year that the company is predicting a rebound as strong demand for panels in the U.S. and China soaks up excess supplies.
- Nearly five years after work started on the factory, the German company has begun making and selling the raw material that goes into solar power panels.
- The $2.4 billion plant — the largest single private manufacturing investment ever in Tennessee — has hired 500 people with plans to soon push that to 650. That's when operations go full bore in the second quarter of this year. The plant will produce 20,000 tons of polysilicon annually at full capacity.
- Bachhuber said the plant was built with expansion in mind, noting the current facility is only using about 40 percent of its land.
- In terms of the solar power market, Bachhuber said new installations grew 20 percent in the past year.
- The average price for polysilicon in 2012 plunged by some 42 percent and struggled through 2013, according to pv magazine. But as the economy has rebounded, prices rebounded in 2014.
- About 90 percent of the world's polysilicon supplies ended up in solar panels in 2014, up from 27 percent in 2001, according to GTM Research. While demand for panels is expected to climb 30 percent, polysilicon capacity is also increasing.
- Polysilicon production capacity currently stands at about 350,000 metric tons a year, and there are plans to increase that by at least 10 percent next year, according to New Energy Finance.
- Still, Wacker Chairman Peter-Alexander Wacker told Bloomberg late last year that the company is predicting a rebound as strong demand for panels in the U.S. and China soaks up excess supplies.