POLICY: Administration issues
a blueprint for biology and biotech investment
B
IOFUELS, MEDICAL DEVICES, and large clini-
cal data sets are just a few of the research areas that will get a visibility boost from the “National Bioeconomy Blueprint” released by the White House at the end of April. The federal strategic plan, from the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy (OSTP), targets research and innovation in biology and biotechnology as an avenue for economic growth. The plan does not provide any money for new programs. “This new blueprint will be a guide for departments and agencies to ensure that the investments they make in this sector will be coordinated and highly likely to generate real economic impact,” OSTP Director John P. Holdren said in releasing the plan on April 26. It emphasizes “an economy that applies scientific and technological innovations in a number of domains— chemistry, materials science, computational and combinatorial science—to our new ... understanding of the
WACKER OPENS POLYSILICON PLANT BUSINESS: New capacity comes on-line
during difficult time for solar industry
W
ACKER CHEMIE has opened a $1.2 billion
polysilicon facility at its Nünchritz, Germany, site. The company says the new capacity—15,000 metric tons per year—is coming on-line as demand picks up in the polysilicon industry after the poor fourth quarter in 2011. By the end of 2012, Wacker says, the company’s total capacity for polysilicon will be around 52,000 metric tons, making it one of the world’s largest producers of the key photovoltaic cell component. The firm’s capacity will further rise to around 70,000 metric tons by 2014 with the opening of another new facility in Charleston, Tenn. At an inauguration ceremony, Wacker CEO Rudolf Staudigl affirmed his bullishness on the solar industry despite the rocky end to 2011. Overcapacity and consolidation in the industry had a strong negative impact on the company’s business in the fourth quarter of last year, he acknowledged. In a sign of the market turmoil, the firm said $87 million of its polysilicon earnings last
life sciences, allowing us to harness biology to address national challenges.” The plan sets out five goals: support more biology and biotechnology research, especially across disciplines; move basic research inventions into the marketplace; reform federal regulations to make the process for applying them faster and more predictable; change or develop educational programs to help meet the industry’s workforce needs; and support public-private partnerships to push new technologies forward. “We appreciate the President’s recognition of the need to clear the path for American innovation and ingenuity and unleash the tremendous promise of biotechnology,” James C. Greenwood, president of the industry trade group Biotechnology Industry Organization, said in a statement. Several agencies have already unveiled specific programs as part of the plan. For example, the Department of Agriculture issued a rule to make it easier for companies to get their biology-based products on the preferred federal procurement list. It also will support more biofuel production facilities, like a biogas anaerobic digester it approved in Oakley, Kan., to turn waste from a local cattle feedlot into energy. At the Department of Health & Human Services, new programs will allow researchers access to FDA’s large repositories of clinical data and will support FDA scientists in gaining more real-world experience with the use of medical devices.—ANDREA WIDENER
year came from holding on to advance payments made by customers that later decided to withdraw from the business. Yet demand picked up “markedly” in the first few months of 2012, Staudigl said, and he cast falling polysilicon prices in a positive light. “We are very optimistic about the outlook for photovoltaics because the significant price decline for polysilicon, wafers, cells, and modules strengthens photovoltaics’ competitiveness as an energy source,” he said. Observers are less optimistic about the sector, although they see large companies such as Wacker pulling through. In a report released earlier this year, the market analysis firm GTM Research predicted that the polysilicon industry will undergo “a major shakeout” over the next two years as the price declines of 2011 continue through 2013. Many companies are furiously adding polysilicon capacity, despite waning demand for photovoltaics, noted Brett Prior, a GTM senior analyst. He said the resulting oversupply“has already begun to open significant gaps in production scale, and therefore cost structure, between industry leaders and an increasingly marginalized group of new entrants.”—MICHAEL MCCOY
WWW.CEN-ONLIN E .ORG
As part of the federal biotech strategy, USDA will support more biofuel production facilities like this anaerobic digester on the Jordan Dairy Farm in Rutland, Mass.
WACKER C HEMIE
STRATEGIC BIOTECHNOLOGY
USDA
NEWS OF THE W EEK
9
MAY 7, 20 1 2
A worker inspects a gas recovery unit at Wacker’s new plant.
