Hemlock Semiconductor raises US$3 billion to build chip and solar cell materials

Via Venture Beat, CleanTech:

Dean Takahashi | 15 December 2008


Ever since solar cells took off a few years ago, there has been a shortage of silicon in its purest form. That’s because polycrystalline silicon is used to make both semiconductor chips and most solar cells.

Because of that, the Hemlock Semiconductor Group has been able to raise $3 billion to expand the production of polysilicon at two major manufacturing sites. The group will invest that money to build a new factory in Clarksville, Tenn., and to add to another one in Hemlock, Mich.

About $1.2 billion will go toward the new site in Clarksville, and another $1 billion to the Hemlock plant. The rest of the money will fund further expansions. Together, those factories will be able to produce 34,000 metric tons of polysilicon per year. Construction will begin immediately.

The numbers involved give you a sense of the scale of the business and a sense for how much polysilicon is needed to fuel the world’s growing appetite for solar power. Altogether, the Hemlock Semiconductor Group has announced investments of $4.5 billion in the past five years. From 2005 to 2015, the company will have increased its production capacity ten-fold.

The shortage of polysilicon has driven up prices for various kinds of chips and driven a lot of solar start-ups to focus on thin-film technology that doesn’t use polysilicon. The Michigan expansion will add 13,000 tons of capacity to the site, creating 300 permanent jobs and 8u0 construction jobs. The expanded plant is expected to begin production in 2011. In Clarksville, the factory will initially produce 10,000 tons of polysilicon. The site is expected to employ 500 people at first and then 800 at full production of 21,000 tons a year. The construction will create 1,000 jobs.

Most of the production will go toward solar cell production, but both factories will be able to make polysilicon for electronics as well.

Hemlock Semiconductor and Hemlock Semiconductor LLC are joint ventures of Dow Corning and two Japanese firms, Shin-Etsu Handotai Co. and Mitsubishi Materials Corp.