REC Silicon has entered into a memorandum of understanding with silicon metal company Ferroglobe for a raw material supply.

Ferroglobe will supply high-purity silicon metal from its plants in Alabama, Ohio and West Virginia for REC Silicon to make polysilicon at its Moses Lake, Washington, factory, which is scheduled to restart production at the end of 2023. This would establish a low-carbon U.S. based solar supply chain for polysilicon, the building block for crystalline silicon solar panels.

Recent investment by the Hanwha Group into REC Silicon, in conjunction with Hanwha’s subsidiary Qcells, has allowed REC to expand its long-standing relationship with Ferroglobe and plan for the immediate development of an end-to-end U.S. solar supply chain from raw silicon, to polysilicon, and finally fully assembled modules (at the Qcells plants in Georgia).

Crucial to quickly ramping a U.S. supply chain are durable, long-term policies to attract and sustain domestic solar manufacturing in the United States. Many in the solar supply chain are still banking on passage of the SEMA Act, which would provide manufacturing tax credits to domestic producers.

The MOU commits the companies to work together to increase production and employment at each of the companies’ facilities.

“It is imperative that the solar manufacturing industry grows and diversifies,” said James A. May II, CEO of REC Silicon. “REC is committed to driving large-scale investments in the United States, and we believe that the passage of SEMA in particular would result in the creation of tens of thousands of high-paying manufacturing jobs across the sector, accelerating the U.S. transition to clean energy.”