Clean energy procurement now means focusing on resilience, prioritizing community stakeholder needs, and optimizing carbon impact. Energy customers like Hemlock Semiconductor (HSC) have an opportunity and obligation to lead in this evolved energy market, using our collective buying power to achieve a 90 percent carbon-free U.S. electricity system by 2030.
This task is monumental, and many steps come before we can claim success. But imagine for a moment what success looks like. Imagine that renewables are created exclusively with low-carbon energy. Imagine that every displaced fossil fuel worker has a path to a good-paying clean energy job. Imagine that our nation is one of many responsible for resilient, ethical solar supply chains. Imagine that the partners you rely on are just as concerned about Scope 3 emissions as you are. Imagine that clean energy procurement decisions are so powerful that they literally create a resilient, equitable, and environmentally sustainable economy. We are working day and night to make this future our reality.
Hyper-pure polysilicon is a foundational building block in three industries critical to a low-carbon energy system: semiconductors, solar power, and the emerging battery storage industry. Our polysilicon can be found in literally billions of consumer electronic devices around the world, from the smartphones in your hands to the brains inside cars and rocket ships. Today, HSC is building on 60 years of experience to serve as a vital supplier to the solar power industry.
In short, silicon connects and energizes the world, and is fundamental to the clean energy economy and imperative for cleaner solar.
Solar is the fastest growing electricity source in the U.S. and the cheapest form of new electricity capacity worldwide. But not all solar panels are created equal, and U.S.-made polysilicon has an imperative role to play in decarbonizing and de-risking the solar supply chain.
Supply chains matter as we speed the energy transition. The source of the silicon going into our solar panels matters. We see a future where U.S.-made polysilicon enables the 21st-century economy, an economy that is more resilient, equitable, and environmentally sustainable.
With the increasing risk that extreme weather events and geopolitics pose to energy infrastructure, energy customers must consider resilience as a fundamental component of clean energy procurement. We are witnessing an urgent groundswell of demand for a secure and reliable domestic solar supply chain. That is because the solar industry is experiencing very real supply risk as trade issues play out. Working together, energy customers can signal to the market that we need to create a more resilient solar supply chain in the United States. There is a solar value chain already in existence domestically, we are just missing key pieces. The good news is that the pieces of the chain that demand the largest capital investments are already in place. As the only producer of polysilicon headquartered in the United States, HSC leads the front of the domestic solar supply chain, and we are fully committed to the build out of American solar. Because how we manufacture renewables matters.