Hemlock Semiconductor Corp. has begun production at its new polysilicon plant.

The new plant, part of a $1.5 billion expansion announced last year, will produce about 9,000 metric tons of polysilicon a year, nearly doubling the plant's capacity to 19,000 metric tons a year by the end of 2008.

The plant will serve the needs of the semiconductor and fast-growing solar energy industries. It will also be the largest single polysilicon plant in the world.

"Delivering polysilicon from our new facility as quickly as possible was essential to meet our customers' expectations," said Hemlock Semiconductor president and CEO Rick Doornbos. "These customers have put a lot of faith in us and the additional quantities of silicon feedstock will enable them to advance solar technology throughout the globe."

Hemlock Semiconductor expects to complete an additional expansion with operations and supply beginning in 2010. This expansion will increase the total capacity from the Hemlock site to 36,000 tons by the end of 2011.

"Hemlock Semiconductor's more-than 40 years of technical and manufacturing expertise to supply high-purity polysilicon to the semiconductor and solar industries was critical to our successful construction and operation of this new, world-class operation," said Doornbos. "We are proud of our team for successfully completing this expansion on-time and within budget."

Hemlock Semiconductor is continuing its search for a second location for another manufacturing plant. Collaborative efforts with customers are under way and may lead to further expansions as the company expects high demand for its materials to continue.

"As a leading manufacturer of polycrystalline silicon, we feel honored to be working so closely with our customers, who represent many of the global leaders in both the solar and electronics industries," said Doornbos. "Our goal is to use our polysilicon expertise to help them secure a long-term supply of high-purity silicon to meet their growth objectives. "

Hemlock Semiconductor is a joint venture of Dow Corning Corp. and two Japanese firms, Shin-Etsu Handotai Co. Ltd. and Mitsubishi Materials Corp. In solar applications, polycrystalline silicon is the cornerstone material used to produce solar cells that harvest renewable energy from light rays. In addition to serving the solar energy market, polysilicon is also used in the production of semiconductor devices used in computers, cell phones and other electronic applications.

Dow Corning provides more than 7,000 products and services to more than 25,000 customers worldwide. It is a joint venture of Midland's Dow Chemical Co. and Corning Inc.

More at www.hemlocksemiconductor.com or www.dowcorning.com.