Europe’s clean energy and digital ambitions share a critical dependency: polysilicon. This places polysilicon at the heart of Europe’s “twin transition”.

The recent report by the Hague Centre for Strategic Studies (HCSS), The silicon economy, highlights the critical importance of polysilicon in Europe’s strategic supply chains.

Polysilicon is an essential material for solar panels and semiconductors. These industries are central to Europe’s ambitions to expand renewable energy, strengthen its digital economy and reduce strategic dependencies. Semiconductors also play a critical role in advanced defence technologies, making secure access to semiconductor-grade polysilicon increasingly relevant to Europe’s defence readiness.

The scale of Europe’s ambition is significant. The EU wants to expand domestic solar manufacturing while also increasing its share of global semiconductor production. HCSS concludes that meeting higher demand from both sectors will require a robust supply of polysilicon. This also makes European polysilicon production increasingly relevant to investors.

Yet European production remains limited. The European Solar Manufacturing Council (ESMC) identifies just one polysilicon producer in Europe and one announced project (RESiLICON).

This highlights the need to strengthen Europe’s polysilicon supply chains.

Remco Rijn, CEO of RESiLICON, recently emphasised the importance of investing in European industrial capabilities:

“China’s latest proposal to restrict exports of key AI and solar manufacturing technologies should be a wake-up call. Europe’s clean energy and digital ambitions cannot depend on supply chains vulnerable to geopolitical disruption. We need to act now.”

This is where RESiLICON aims to contribute, with our planned ultra-pure polysilicon production facility in the Netherlands.

Interested in learning more? Whether you’re a potential customer, investor or strategic partner, we’d welcome a conversation. Get in touch with our team to explore opportunities.