A new silicon production facility in France

Frank Wouters,
CEO Silicium de Provence (SILPRO), France

Frank Wouters is the founder and general manager of the German subsidiaries of the Econcern Group, a European sustainable energy company with head quarters in the Netherlands. As CEO of SOL Holding and Silicium de Provence, he is responsible for the construction of a silicon factory in France and a solar cell factory in Austria.

Frank Wouters is an experienced manager and sustainable energy expert with hands-on long-term experience in several countries. Frank Wouters is an expert on renewable energy technologies and has a long track record in planning and implementing renewable energy projects. Furthermore, Frank has worked on the market development of renewable energy technologies, both in Europe and in developing countries. He has specific expertise in the field of energy in the built environment, photovoltaic solar energy and rural electrification.

Silicium de Provence (SILPRO) is a company founded by Econcern, Solon, Photon Power Technologies and Norsun and aims at producing solar grade silicon of a purity enabling highest efficiency solar cells. The consortium has been working on the development of a new facility in St. Auban (Provence – Southern France) since late 2005 and will start production 2008/2009. 

The initial capacity will exceed 3000 tons per annum, to be doubled quickly thereafter. SILPRO has chosen the path of 'improved proven technology'. The conventional Siemens deposition process via the gaseous chlorosilane route has been selected for various reasons, especially: Minimization of technological risk, availability of expertise and technology, and known quality of the produced silicon.

SILPRO has recently signed an LOI with Degussa, the leading producer of chlorosilanes worldwide, to study a fence to fence operation in St. Auban. In this set-up, Degussa would supply SILPRO with high quality chlorosilanes to be further processed by SILPRO. 

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