Hoku Materials has announced the successful production of polysilicon at its manufacturing facility in Pocatello, Idaho. The company produced the material after completing a comprehensive system commissioning protocol which culminated in deposition runs in a select number of its installed polysilicon reactors.
Hoku Materials explained that the primary purpose of the testing was to confirm system integrity and validate operating procedures and that it had operated the reactors continuously for approximately five days during the final phases of the commissioning procedure. During the live reactor runs, Hoku utilized trichlorosilane purchased from third-party suppliers.
“This is an historic day for Hoku,” said Scott Paul, president and chief executive officer at Hoku. “We have completed the first step in our planned production ramp-up and successfully manufactured our first batches of polysilicon. Importantly, this challenging, month-long commissioning process also allowed us to flex our operations team, and validate our training, systems and procedures. I am extremely proud of our team’s accomplishment.”
