Kun Renewables LLP, a unit of Kazakhstan's Lancaster Group, expects to begin exporting purified silicon used in solar cells from a new plant in the central Asian country next year, Bloomberg reports.
"Production should begin in 20 months," Prasad Bhamre, president of the Almaty-based company, said in an interview today in Mumbai. Potential markets are India, Malaysia, Thailand and China, he said.
Purified silicon, known as polysilicon, is sliced into wafers to make solar cells that are joined into photovoltaic panels.
The $388 million plant in Astana is expected to produce 2,500 tons a year. The Development Bank of Kazakhstan is lending $200 million to the project with Lancaster Group providing the remainder in equity.
Electricity can account for as much as 45 percent of the cost of making polysilicon in countries like Japan and the U.S., said Bhamre. "It's the single biggest component" of costs.
Lower power rates in energy-rich Kazakhstan will allow the plant to produce polysilicon more cheaply with electricity accounting for about 20 percent of the cost, he said.
Kazakhstan has 3 percent of the world's oil supplies.