Three months ahead of schedule, Wacker Chemie has started ramping its new polysilicon plant in Nünchritz, Germany. The €900 million investment which includes debottlenecking strategies to boost output to 15,000MT per annum has created 500 new jobs at the plant. Full nominal capacity is expected to be operational in the second quarter of 2012.

“This expansion of capacity is instrumental to continue meeting our customers’ strong demand for top-quality and highly efficient solar-grade polysilicon in the years to come,” commented Rudolf Staudigl, President and CEO of Wacker Chemie AG.

The new production complex is said to employ integrated loop material processes enabling by-products to be reprocessed and then reused as starting materials in the manufacturing chain.

Wacker reiterated that almost all of the polysilicon from the new plant was under supply contracts through 2015. Wacker expects to produce 33,000MT of polysilicon in 2011.