If anyone doubted the effect of a few bits of silicon, see the effect in the past two days on the Evergreen market cap tumble. A simple hiccup like raw material supply issues has caused a huge drop in value in just two days. Evergreen even paid a deposit to reserve feedstock and yet MEMC is not to supply all that it had contracted to do.
Evergreen now must try to find another way to get raw materials into its feedline otherwise have machines stop and labor get an extended “smoking break”. All continues to point to the fragility of a supply line dependant on the scraps of the microchip industry. He who solves this one is a big winner…and there are a more than a few of the disruptive technology guys laughing (in private of course) at this sequence of events.
Evergreen will surely recover as this does not significantly impact long term view on the company, yet it does exarcerbate the fragility of the situation for anyone dependant on silicon feedstock.
Sass
3 Comments
While Evergreen’s supply problem is real, it’s also a bit overstated. MEMC backed out of a short-term contract for granular silicon, but Evergreen already has a long-term contract in place with REC for chunk silicon. In practical terms, all this means is that Evergreen is going to have to switch from granular silicon to chunk silicon a bit earlier than planned. It may or may not have a temporary effect on the bottom line, but it seems highly unlikely to idle Evergreen’s plant.
Also, for what it’s worth, the crystalline silicon PV industry hasn’t been dependent upon scrap silicon for some time now. In fact, PV is now nearly as large a consumer of silicon as the microchip industry itself, and seems poised to surpass it in 2007. Sure, some silicon PV companies still use whatever scrap they can get their hands on, but my understanding is that industry-wide it is only some 10% of total silicon consumption.
Can recycled semiconductor wafers be reused for pv manufacturing?
thx.
MJZ
COMMENT FROM SASS:
It depends on the grade. Perhaps you could contact me directly at speress@icpsolar.com for further discussion?
Sass
please send me information about the sources to buy the
scrap silicon.
John
We don’t publish this information, nor do we currently deal in scrap silicon.
Sass