Nitol Solar Group Ltd. was a

vertically integrated In microeconomics, management and international political economy, vertical integration is a term that describes the arrangement in which the supply chain of a company is integrated and owned by that company. Usually each member of the supply ...

company A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of people, whether Natural person, natural, Legal person, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common p ...

group based in

Usolye-Sibirskoye Usolye-Sibirskoye ( rus, Усолье-Сибирское, p=ʊˈsolʲjə sʲɪˈbʲirskəjə) is a town in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, located on the left bank of the Angara River. Population: History It was founded in 1669 under the name ''Usolye'' ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. The company had two plants and was intended to produce solar-grade

polycrystalline silicon Polycrystalline silicon, or multicrystalline silicon, also called polysilicon, poly-Si, or mc-Si, is a high purity, polycrystalline form of silicon, used as a raw material by the solar photovoltaic and electronics industry. Polysilicon is produ ...

from trichlorsilane by Siemens-process for

solar energy Solar energy is radiant light and heat from the Sun that is harnessed using a range of technologies such as solar power to generate electricity, solar thermal energy (including solar water heating), and solar architecture. It is an essenti ...

applications. The company stopped all activities in 2012, fired all employees, went bankrupt, and closed in 2019. The company's facilities were being dismantled in 2022. In 2008 the company was funded by

International Finance Corporation The International Finance Corporation (IFC) is an international financial institution that offers investment, advisory, and asset-management services to encourage private-sector development in less developed countries. The IFC is a member of t ...

(IFC), CHINA

Suntech Power Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. () is a Chinese producer of solar panels, with of annual production capacity by the end of 2011. It is headquartered in Wuxi, Jiangsu. Shunfeng International Clean Energy Limited, a HKSE listed renewable energy inv ...

Inc, later getting joined by

Sberbank PJSC Sberbank (russian: Сбербанк, initially a contraction of russian: сберегательный банк, translit=sberegatelnyy bank, lit=savings bank, link=no) is a Russian majority state-owned banking and financial services compan ...

and Rosnano (with surety by

Alfa-Bank ALFA-BANK JSC (Alfa-Bank), is the largest of the private banks in Russia. It was founded in 1990 by Russian businessman Mikhail Fridman, who is still the controlling owner today. Headquartered in Moscow, it operates in seven countries, providin ...

) in 2009. NITOL group also included Usolikhimprom () company that was shut down and dissolved on November 1, 2017 due to bankruptcy as well. The company was labeled as a « second Chernobyl» due to chemical contamination of plant by

mercury Mercury commonly refers to: * Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun * Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg * Mercury (mythology), a Roman god Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to: Companies * Merc ...

and others dangerous raw chemical compounds that were left unmanaged.

Overview

They were valued at $1bn in Jan 2008 The company was founded in 1998 by Dimitry Kontenko, and in 2009, was Russia's largest producer of polysilicon. Nitol’s current and envisaged product groups include the

value chain A value chain is a progression of activities that a firm operating in a specific industry performs in order to deliver a valuable product (i.e., good and/or service) to the end customer. The concept comes through business management and was firs ...

from

trichlorosilane Trichlorosilane is an inorganic compound with the formula HCl3Si. It is a colourless, volatile liquid. Purified trichlorosilane is the principal precursor to ultrapure silicon in the semiconductor industry. In water, it rapidly decomposes to pr ...

and monocrystalline and multicrystalline silicon wafers. Nitol Solar production activity is based on two divisions – the Chemical Division and the Polysilicon Division. The divisions are integrated into a single value chain. The Chemical Division manufactures

chlorine Chlorine is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Cl and atomic number 17. The second-lightest of the halogens, it appears between fluorine and bromine in the periodic table and its properties are mostly intermediate betwee ...

caustic soda Sodium hydroxide, also known as lye and caustic soda, is an inorganic compound with the formula NaOH. It is a white solid ionic compound consisting of sodium cations and hydroxide anions . Sodium hydroxide is a highly caustic base and alka ...

, a number of chlorine-containing organic and inorganic products and processes gas for the production of trichlorosilane (raw material for polysilicon production). The Polysilicon Division is focussed on the manufacture of the primary raw material for photovoltaic wafers. In 2011, the company was involved in a project funded by Rusnano and Sberbank to establish a polysilicone plant in Irkutsk, the project folded with all workers laid off after the price of polysilicone fell from $400 to $16/kg.Sberbank withdraws from nitol solar project. (2015, Feb 06). Interfax : Russia & CIS Business & Financial Daily In 2012 company stopped production of polycrystalline silicon. In 2019 it was completely bankrupt.

Legacy

The company has left a huge mercury-containing sludge that heavily contaminated nearby rivers and lands by

metal. Because of that it's often referred as a « second Chernobyl».

References

{{Reflist

External links

Official websiteData entry for Nitol Solar Ltd.
at the Business Week. Technology companies of Russia