1.2GW, €1.6 billion polysilicon, solar cell/module plant planned for Russia with Schmid technology

A fully integrated 1.2GW solar plant is to be built in the Omsk region in Western Siberia, Russia at an estimated cost of €1.6 billion (approx US$2.4 billion), which will include a 10,000MT monosilane/polysilicon plant as well as c-Si solar cell and module production plants. Russian company Silarus, a 100% subsidiary of Titan, a major chemicals company, will own and operate the new business. Lead project and technology partners for the project are Gebrüder Schmid and Schmid Silicon Technology (SST). EPC Engineering Consulting will also collaborate on the project.

SST is currently building a proof of concept monosilane/polysilicon pilot plant near Dresden, Germany. The company will transfer the technology and know-how to silicon metal producer Silarus, according to Frank Tinnefeld, Director of Sales and New Business sectors at Schmid Group, in an interview with PV-Tech.

Tinnefeld also noted that the formal contracts would be signed in the first quarter of 2010 and the plant built in phases. The project is now at the drawing board phase. An agreement on the project was signed last month at the German-Russian raw materials forum held in Moscow.

Tinnefeld told PV-Tech that the Russian firms had been planning the facilities for a long time. Schmid only recently became involved in the negotiations due to its new business strategy and the company's ability to provide the required technology and know-how for such a project of this scale and complexity.

The project could start next year and looks like taking several years for completion of the first phases, which include the 10,000MT monosilane/polysilicon plant.

Silarus is expected to sell its solar modules into both the domestic and international markets.

The 'signees' - Front row - Vasily Zubakov (Silarus); Frank Tinnefeld (Schmid Group); Jochem Hahn (Schmid Silicon Technology); Tim Henkel (EPC Engineering Consulting).
Back row- Sergey Ryabov and Mikhail Suyaginsky (both from Titan); Prof. Dr. Wladimir Litvinenko (headmaster of the public institute for mining in St. Petersburg and Russian patron of the raw material forum); Dr. Walter Jürgen Smid (German ambassador in Moscow and representative of the Federal Republic of Germany in Moscow); Prof. Maier (Freiberg University); and Dr. Stoiber, Prof. Töpfer and Prof. Teltschik (members of the German delegation group).