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REC Silicon’s US plant restart hampered

Vertically integrated solar manufacturer Renewable Energy Corporation (REC) has had its restart plants held back by power outages. REC Silicon’s Moses Lake, Washington, was affected.

A loss of power to the Moses Lake REC Silicon plant has caused a major loss in production. Image: REC Silicon.

Operations at the plant were shut down on yesterday morning when the power went out both in residential and industrial properties in the Grant County. A reason for the loss of power has not been determined.

REC Silicon is presently restarting operations at the site and it anticipates that in three weeks full production, to previous levels, will be achieved. Because of the power outage 500 metric tons (MT) of production output is believed to have been lost. The annual polysilicon production target for 2011 has been revised down from 19,000 MT to 18,500 MT.

2011 has been a tumultuous year for REC with at least one long-term wafer supply contract being cancelled and the company has admitted that it is contemplating permanently closing three wafer facilities and one cell plant in Norway. Its Singapore wafer, cell and module plant, which was opened in November 2010, is continuing at full production.