Sitting Atop the Scrap Heap of Success- SRS Wins Spirit of America: “Green Company of the Year” Award

By: Marlize Van Romburgh

Staff Writer

Solarsilicon Recycling Services is the ultimate green company, tapping into the ultimate niche And it’s proving to be a
lucrative gig: Just this year, the Ventura County firm purchased its own building in Ventura for $6.3 million and kicked off a hiring spree to bolster its ranks to 100 employees by year-end.  What’s behind that growth? Look around Ihe Solarsilicon facility and the answer will look like this chunks of shimmering, blue-grey rock-like material, lying around in molten-shaped blobs or in carved-off pieces.

Solarsilicon takes discarded and damaged silicon —remnants from the production of solar cells, waste material from computer chips, old solar cells and so forth —and cleans it up to produce new silicon at a high enough grade for the solar industry to reuse.  “We’re the ultimate green company.” CEO Rob Bushman told the Business Times in a March interview.  “We’re recycling for the solar industry.”  Bushman started the firm in 1996 after owning and operating a scrap metal business where he realized that silicon was simply being tossed into landfills “I jrot my start because Siemens solar was just throwing this stuff away,” he said at the company’s old 20,000 square-foot facility in Camarillo.  Solarsilicon has since outgrown that facility and is making the move over to its new 90.000-squarefoot headquarters at 2433 Eastman Ave. in Ventura .  It will invest between $3 million and $5million in the property, which it will use as an incubator for refining its siliconcleaning process, its executives said.
The firm hopes to be able to produce silicon soon at a high enough grade for the semiconductor industry to use.  The
company had 50 employees by 2006, when Bushman sold it Ersol, which was later acquired by tech conglomerate Bosch.   In
March 2010. Bushman and company President Eric Baldwin bought the firm back. They’ve grown it from 43 to about 70 employees since, and hope to have 100 by the end of this year.  It also plans to up its capacity five times over the remainder of the year.

Mike Tingus. president of Lee & Associates-L A North/Ventura, represented Solarsilicon in its purchase of the Ventura facility Tingus told the Business Times earlier this year that Bushman — a longtime friend and his first client — could have moved the company outof-state to be closer to clients, but decided to stay in theTri-Counties instead.  California, perhaps surprisingly, is not a solar energy hub. Solarsilicon has no clients in the stale, Bushman said, and most of its scrap metal comes from outside the state or even overseas, but Bushman made a lifestyle choice tn stay in theregion. “You’ve got to pay that heavy weather tax if you want to stay here,” he laughed. “An absentee ownership doesn’t work.”  Some of Solarsilicon’s employees have been with the firm for 18 years. Bushman said, and he didn’t want to pick up and pull the company out from under them.  Interestingly, the majority of the firm’s workers are women, who are better able to work on the detail-oriented tasks required to clean silicon, he said.  “Companies like Solarsilicon are why I really enjoy being an industrial broker,” Tingus said. “You go into any industrial park in Ventura County and there’s somebody creating some new widget or developing a new manufacturing process. There are guys like this everywhere that have their niche. ”

Over the years, Solarsilicon has seen the solar industry take off, in the U.S. and abroad Countries such as Germany are light years ahead of the United States in terms of solar-energy development, Bushman said. “While the US solar industry has grown substantially over the past few years, both Europe and Asia have dramatically outpaced that growth rate. The solar industry remains in its infancy and should experience enormous growth over the next 10 to 20 years,” he said in a recent email “SRS will have expanded international operations in key markets around the world over the next few years.”  An additional facility in
the US “makes good sense,”he said. “We are being driven by our customers to support growing efforts overseas, primarily in Asia “But he also sees that as an opportunity for growth, as solar remains a part of the US.’ continued push to find better renewable energy sources.   ”We see a verybright future or we wouldn’t have invested in this facility,” he said.

服务宗旨

我们不是一个仅仅向生产厂家购买原料，然后卖给顾客的中间商。我们出售的所有材料都经过自己的化学处理和测试；顾客所得到的原料都有质量保证。作为一个顾客能信赖的长期原料商，我们在商业往来中遵循一下原则：

1产品保证满足客户需要。

2价格低廉。

3保证安全的生产环境；每个有进取心的职工都有学习和晋升的机会。

4对社区负责，把环境污染降到最低。

回中文主页

服务宗旨

我们不是一个仅仅向生产厂家购买原料，然后卖给顾客的中间商。我们出售的所有材料都经过自己的化学处理和测试；顾客所得到的原料都有质量保证。作为一个顾客能信赖的长期原料商，我们在商业往来中遵循一下原则：

1  产品保证满足客户需要。

2  价格低廉。

3  保证安全的生产环境；每个有进取心的职工都有学习和晋升的机会。

4  对社区负责，把环境污染降到最低。

回中文主页

Our beginning was a difficult one. In 1996 with a major shortage of silicon feedstock for the solar industry SRS was asked by (at the time) the largest solar manufacturer in the world to try to “clean” their pot scrap. We tried for 2 months until the first successful single crystal ingot was grown from un-etched pot scrap. This was a first for this industry.

With the tight market conditions for feedstock and this company’s worldwide relationships they were able to secure a large supply of pot scrap from all over the world and had it shipped to SRS in Oxnard, California. Now we had to follow up the success of our tests with the same quality for production. That was not an easy task, however we did it, over and over again with great success.

Now with over 3000 metric tons of SRS processed pot scrap in solar cells worldwide, we are the world leader in silicon feedstock processing for the solar industry.

A lot has happened since then.

It is SRS’s core business to take unusable silicon and process it into usable feedstock for solar applications. Many poly silicon manufacturers have tried to sell this type of material into the solar industry directly without success, due to contamination and/or impurities.

These are not the only problems for suppliers. There are sales, support, handling, and claims. This is where SRS comes in. There is no hassle; we sell all of our products as just that, “Ours”.

We process and certify all materials in our plant with no disclosure of our supplier’s names. We sell it directly to solar manufacturers in our own proprietary boxes and assume all responsibility for the quality, with no repercussions to our suppliers.

Being qualified for “crucible ready” silicon is something that has been needed for the solar industry for years and SRS has and will continue meeting those needs. Under current market conditions it is difficult to continue to grow. However SRS has experienced growth every year since its inception.

Part of our success is from our aggressive approach to the solar industry. We will continue to look at the future of this industry and try to stay one step ahead of their needs.

Solarsilicon Recycling Services, LLC provides products and services that support the growth and technological development of the worldwide photovoltaic industry.

We will conduct business with long-term vision in an ecologically sound and fiscally prudent manner.

We will foster relationships within the solar energy community that will contribute to the success of its overall activities.

We will strive to be good citizens within the industry and our community as a whole.

We view our employees as our most valuable resource and they will be provided with a safe and rewarding workplace in which they can grow and advance.

• All grades of silicon.
• Automated line capable of custom and standard jobs.
• Removes surface impurities up to and beyond 100 microns.
• Cleanroom protocols established & practiced.
• Well-trained staff with technician, Site Worker, and Supervisor level HAZMAT training.

• Two acid etch stations holding up to 66 gal.
• Air agitated acid & rinse tanks for homogeneous etching.
• Ultrasonic & heated rinse tanks.

All Polysilicon Results:

Total of All 6 Elements (Cr,Cu,Fe,Ni,Na,Zn)

< 1.50 ppbw

All Remelt / PS Results:

Avg.(Al,Cr,Cu,K,Ni,Zn,Fe,Ca,Na) =< 1.00 ppba

Our etching services allow our customers to use all materials as received without any further processing required.

• Final inspection & bagging is conducted in a Class 1000 Clean Room Environment.
• Poly bags & gloves are used to maintain the purity of etched material.