Start-up making key solar-panel material gets $1.4M state loan

A local start-up that plans to manufacture polycrystalline silicon for use by the solar-panel industry has received a $1.4 million loan from the Ohio Air Quality Development Authority to buy equipment for its operations.

The state controlling board yesterday approved the loan for Buckeye Silicon Inc., which is at the University of Toledo's Advanced Renewable Energy Technology Center but is close to securing a site for a manufacturing plant.

“We have picked out a site, but that's all I can say at this time,” Mark Erickson, Buckeye Silicon's chief financial officer, said.

Eventually, the firm hopes to have 100 workers who will use waste materials to make polycrystalline silicon to be used by the solar and semiconductor industry.

The company will use self-contained machinery to extract the silicon from sodium fluorosilicate, a by-product of phosphate refining. The extraction system was invented by Mark Wu, the company's chairman and chief technical officer.

The Toledo area has several existing solar firms and start-ups. But nearly all are involved with thin-film technology, which uses a thin coating of chemicals applied to glass or other surfaces to capture solar radiation and convert it to electricity.

Thin-film manufacturing has only about a 4 percent share of the market.

What makes Buckeye Silicon intriguing is it will make silicon, a product used by 88 percent of the solar industry.

“Our addition to the economic system in the Toledo area could help to lure companies here from that other 88 percent,” Mr. Erickson said.

In 2008 polycrystalline silicon cost $400 a ton, which made solar panels using it expensive or impractical without subsidies. But Mr. Erickson said prices are down to $70 a ton, spurring new demand for silicon.

Buckeye Silicon plans to make up to 1,500 metric tons of polycrystalline silicon annually.

Mr. Erickson said the firm looked at sites in several states, Minnesota in particular, but chose the Toledo area mainly for its skilled work force.

“Based upon the experience that the work force here has, there's a great transference from the auto industry into any other manufacturing industry. With modest retraining, you can have a very good work force here,” he said.

Mr. Erickson said he and his partners also liked the work ethic of Midwest employees, the solar expertise at UT, the commitment to economic development by Ohio, and the Toledo area's proximity to major markets and its intermodal aspects.

“It's just a really, really good fit here,” Mr. Erickson said.

— Jon Chavez