Zhengzhou, China [RenewableEnergyAccess.com] A polycrystalline silicone project with an annual production capacity of 300 tons has been put into production successfully in China: Silicon High-Tech Company, of Central China's Henan Province, has become the largest polycrystalline silicon producer in China, according to the article from Asia Pulse.

With this development, the company reports that China has broken a "foreign blockade and monopoly" in polycrystalline silicon production technology. The article explains that the world's manufacturing technology of polycrystalline silicon has long been monopolized by seven companies in the United States, Japan and Germany, and that until now, China could only produce the raw ingredient for solar in a very small batches using foreign "second-level" technology.

After more than two years of construction, the first furnace of polycrystalline silicon products, with a diameter of 130 mm and length of two meters and weighing 1.3 tons, rolled out successfully on November 3, 2005.

It is predicted that the world's demand for polycrystalline silicone will hit 28,000 tons in 2005, and the domestic demand reach 1,500 tons. And the world's demand will grow 10 percent or more annually.

The 300-ton polycrystalline silicon project is jointly funded by Luoyang Unicrystallline Silicon Co., Ltd., Luoyang Jinfeng Electric Co., Ltd. and China Nonferrous Engineering Institute, with investment totaling 240 million yuan (USD$29 million).

For the full article via Canada's Center for Energy, see the following link.