Wacker eyes another factory even as it marks opening of new Bradley County plant

April 19, 2016 at 1:00 a.m. | Updated April 19, 2016 at 3:59 a.m.

by Mike Pare

Wacker Wacker supervisory board chairman Peter-Alexander Wacker holds a piece of ribbon over his head during a grand opening ceremony for the company's new $2.5 billion plant on Monday, Apr. 18, 2016, in Charleston, Tenn. Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam stands to his left, while Dr. Rudolf Staudigl (CQ), president and CEO of Wacker Chemie, stands to his right.

By the numbers

› 980,000: Feet of piping installed at the polysilicon plant› 237,000: Number of dump truck loads used to move soil› 145,000: Cubic yards of cement poured› 3,500: Construction workers on site at peakSource: Wacker

Hyperpure polysilicon

Impurities in polysilicon are measured in parts per trillion, or the same as a single typing error in 1 million books of 1,000 pages each, according to Wacker.

CHARLESTON, Tenn. - Wacker Chemie officials, marking the opening of their new $2.5 billion polysilicon plant in Bradley County, said Monday they're already looking at erecting an adjacent factory that builds on its sizable investment.

"We've come to Tennessee to stay," said Peter-Alexander Wacker, chairman of the German chemical company's supervisory board, at the grand opening of the sprawling polysilicon plant that is to employ about 650 people.

Rudolf