SunEdison, a provider of solar energy technologies and services, is collaborating with the Government of Saudi Arabia to fund a feasibility study for the establishment of a vertically integrated solar  PV manufacturing complex at Wa’ad Al Shammal in Saudi Arabia.
The proposed project, entailing the production of polysilicon through modules, would support the growth of the solar energy industry in the Kingdom.
The partnership will help SunEdison  develop attractive new markets to fuel its growth.
Ahmad Chatila, CEO of SunEdison, said the combination of SunEdison technology and the Kingdom’s world-class manufacturing and energy sector expertise will help capitalize on substantial growth in the Kingdom and the region, and maximize the value of solar PV projects supported by this venture.
The complex would utilize both SunEdison’s proprietary high pressure silane fluidized bed reactor (HP-FBR) polysilicon, and continuous Czochralski (CCz) crystal ingot technology and equipment, as well as include solar wafer, cell and module manufacturing, employ attractive debt financing for the approximately $6.4B project, and would begin production in 2017, ramping to 3 GW (gigawatts) annually.
A significant percentage of polysilicon and ingot production would support the 3 GW planned module output, with the remaining crystal production addressing the market with a substantial cost advantage
This project would enable local companies to gain access to and benefit from SunEdison’s technology and downstream platform for solar energy development in Saudi Arabia and regional markets.
According to Azzam Shalabi, president of NICDP, the project will be capable of building a complete industrial eco-system that is sustainable and able to compete on a global level by utilizing the technology developed by SunEdison to produce high purity polysilicon, and high-efficiency, low-cost mono-crystalline ingots.
Given the size and vertically integrated nature of the complex, the partners will also benefit from economies of scale of the project