SunEdison is currently considering investing $2 billion in establishing a 20,000 to 30,000 tonne polysilicon plant– the key raw material for solar PV cells - in China.

According to SunEdison the plant would have the lowest production costs globally. It would employ their high pressure fluidized bed reactor technology which the company claims produces high purity polysilicon 10 times more efficiently and with 90% less energy used than non FBR technologies such as the Siemens process.

SunEdison’s President Ahmad Chatila said the cash cost will be less than $6 a kilogram, $2 below the nearest competitor. The market price for solar-grade polysilicon is currently trading at close $20 per kilogram.

If they proceed this plant will join a number of other announced expansions in solar grade silicon production. GTM Research released research on October 14 which estimates that 130 thousand tonnes of polysilicon manufacturing capacity, equivalent to roughly 25 GW of solar PV panels, would come on-line in 2015. By 2016 they expect cumulative global polysilicon production will reach 437 thousand tonnes which would be enough to produce 85 GW of solar PV modules.