The decision to resume production was made on 28 January, and the ramp up to full capacity will begin immediately.
"In the past years, the solar industry has been through a challenging period with overcapacity. As a consequence of this, Elkem Solar temporarily halted production. However, strong underlying demand growth and recent price increases enables Elkem Solar to restart production. We are currently experiencing increasing prices and demand for Elkem Solar Silicon," says CEO in Elkem Solar Inge Grubben-Strømnes.
Reduced costs and increased value
The Elkem Solar plant has not been running at full capacity since late 2011. During the period of production stoppages the organization has carried out important improvement projects to reduce cost and increase the value of the product. Costs have been reduced through many small improvements implemented by the organization during the period of production halt.
In the same way the value of the product is increased through further adaption to the customers process and field studies on how to capture the inherent advantages of Elkem Solar Silicon.
Torgeir Ulset, Vice President Sales & Marketing in Elkem Solar, elaborates further: "Independent tests in Hyderabad, India, and Alice Springs, Australia, have revealed 2.5 per cent higher electricity production than modules produced with standard Polysilicon. This effect is caused by improved temperature coefficient and through the electrical properties and composition of trace elements in ESS."
The world's cleanest and most energy efficient solar silicon production process
"Elkem Solar has the world's cleanest and most energy efficient process for the production of silicon for solar cells. ESS has been CO2 certified in Japan with a footprint of 1.2 grams of CO2 per kilowatt-hour for 20-30 years," says Ulset.
http://www.elkem.com/en/news/item/Elkem-Solar-resumes-production-of-solar-grade-silicon/
