Presentation

REC Silicon’s history dates way back to the early 1980’s. In 2013 the REC Group was split into the upstream oriented REC Silicon and the downstream focused REC Solar. The company is a producer of advanced silicon materials, supplying high-purity polysilicon and silicon gases to the solar and electronics industries worldwide. Providing products supporting global decarbonisation and electrification, REC Silicon can be considered a green cleantech company. With more than 30 years’ experience, it is a well-established player in the industry. It has two polysilicon plants in the US and a 15% stake in a Chinese polysilicon JV. Due to the unfavourable market conditions, the Moses Lake facility, its largest plant, was shut down in mid-2019.

Mid-October, REC Silicon announced two new, strong partnerships with significant impact on the road ahead. US based solar cell manufacturer Violet Power will co-locate with the company's Moses Lake facility and establish a US solar supply chain. The second partnership with Group14 Technologies, a provider of silicon-carbon composite materials for Li-ion markets, will establish an advanced silicon anode production facility for batteries in Moses Lake. Following the announcement in October, REC Silicon raised NOK 1000m in a private placement. It is now eying a Moses Lake restart with full utilisation highly likely.

The growth in solar has been tremendous the last decade, and large utility-scale solar plants have become more common and constructed more frequently. The bright growth prospects for solar, spurred large investments in polysilicon capacity – particularly in China. However, this led to a significant oversupply already in 2016, with the market finding a new point of balance the following years, before a substantial oversupply again in 2019. Growth prosepcts are now looking brighter and prices are increasing. Also, with an expectation of higher demand for more CO2 friendly solar cells, REC Silicon's face an exciting future.