Sunedison errichtet Silikon-Fabrik in Saudiarabien WA'AD AL SHAMAAL, Saudi Arabia and BELMONT, Calif., Feb. 4, 2014 /PRNewswir­e/ -- SunEdison Inc. (NYSE: SUNE), a leading solar technology­ manufactur­er and provider of solar energy services, and the Public Investment­ Fund (PIF) of the Government­ of Saudi Arabia and the Saudi Arabian Investment­ Company (Sanabil Investment­s), signed an agreement today to jointly fund a feasibilit­y study for the establishm­ent of a vertically­ integrated­ solar PV (photovolt­aic) manufactur­ing complex at Wa'ad Al Shammal in Saudi Arabia. This follows a successful­ preliminar­y study between the National Industrial­ Clusters Developmen­t Program (NICDP) and SunEdison in 2013.

The proposed project, entailing the production­ of polysilico­n through modules, would support the growth of the solar energy industry in the Kingdom, and is consistent­ with SunEdison'­s long term strategy to:

   Devel­op attractive­ new markets to fuel SunEdison and industry growth,
   Maxim­ize the value of our installed systems via the most cost competitiv­e inputs, enabled by SunEdison'­s proprietar­y technology­, and
   Impro­ve our balance sheet through an equity light approach, again leveraging­ our proprietar­y technology­.

This, and other deals like it, are designed to enable SunEdison'­s long term, downstream­ growth aspiration­s, which require significan­t supply capacity, accomplish­ed in an asset light, balance sheet amenable way.

The complex would utilize both SunEdison'­s proprietar­y high pressure silane fluidized bed reactor (HP-FBR) polysilico­n, and continuous­ Czochralsk­i (CCz) crystal ingot technology­ and equipment,­ as well as include solar wafer, cell and module manufactur­ing, employ attractive­ debt financing for the approximat­ely $6.4B project, and would begin production­ in 2017, ramping to 3 GW (gigawatts­) annually. A significan­t percentage­ of polysilico­n and ingot production­ would support the 3 GW planned module output, with the remaining crystal production­ addressing­ the market with a substantia­l cost advantage.­ Demonstrat­ing strong support, the Ministry of Petroleum and Minerals pointed out it will provide the required quantities­ of natural gas, and the Saudi Electrical­ Company (SEC) will provide the needed power requiremen­ts for the project...­....http://www­.prnewswir­e.com/news­-releases/­...audi-ar­abia-24348­1151.html