Evonik Industries (Essen), formerly named Degussa, will spend hundreds of millions of Euros to “expand its position massively” in materials for the solar energy market, says Klaus Engel, Evonik board member responsible for chemicals. “We see solar silicon as a large market with growth over the next few years,” Engel says. Evonik says as part of its strategy it has signed a letter of intent with silicon manufacturer The Silicon Mine (The Netherlands) to jointly build the first integrated solar silicon production facility in The Netherlands at Sittard-Geleen. Evonik will produce its Siridion brand chlorosilanes for the venture, which TSM will process into high purity silicon. Silicon is used to make solar silicon wafers that form the basis of electricity-generating solar panels. Evonik says it will invest “a high double-digit million Euro” sum into the project. The venture will create at least 400 jobs, Evonik says. TSM plans to produce 3,750 m.t./year of high purity solar silicon at the site in Sittard-Geleen. “That corresponds to 5% of the world market volume forecast for 2010,” says Gosse Boxhoorn, chairman of TSM. Annual production capacity at the site could be increased in the long term to 14,000 m.t./year of solar silicon, Boxhoorn adds. Evonik already claims to be the world's largest producer of high purity chlorosilanes.