Settlement clears the way for SunEdison FBR polysilicon sale to GCL-Poly

Due to the number of different operations that it was involved in, the bankruptcy and carving up of SunEdison has had a lot of moving parts. And while a bankruptcy court earlier approved the sale of the company’s fluidized bed reactor (FBR) polysilicon operations to GCL-Poly, there have been some roadblocks along the way.

One of these came from SunEdison Semiconductor, which the renewable energy developer spun off two years before it went belly-up. Semi still claimed a stake in the technology, and had objected to the sale of the intellectual property to GCL.

According to bankruptcy court documents SunEdison, its creditors and SunEdison Semiconductor appear to have struck a deal which should allow the $150 million deal to go through, which will give GCL-Poly not only SunEdison’s legacy FBR project in California but its share in the SMP “high-pressure” FBR joint venture in Korea.

Additionally, Semi has settled $40 million in claims against SunEdison, while receiving a $2.7 million settlement. The court will have the opportunity to approve the agreement between the parties on January 24.

And while the deal will consolidate FBR operations in fewer hands, the future of the technology is still murky. To date few companies have successfully produced FBR polysilicon, and there is no indication that the SMP joint venture has solved the technical issues which have delayed full ramping of its facility. Similarly, GCL-Poly’s pre-existing FBR project has never reported definitive success.