REC sticks to end-March goal for Moses Lake start

OSLO, March 23 (Reuters) - Norwegian solar industry group Renewable Energy Corp (REC) (REC.OL) is sticking to a plan for starting up an expanded silicon plant at Moses Lake, Washington, by the end of March, its chief executive said on Monday.

"Yes, until we have said something else, the target we have already expressed applies," Chief Executive Erik Thorsen told Reuters.

The start-up of the solar-grade silicon plant expansion was initially scheduled to take place in the fourth quarter of 2008, but has been delayed several times.

"We have said that our goal is to start the plant in the second half of March so it would be natural for us to give an update on the status before March is over," Thorsen said.

REC is one of the world's biggest producers of solar-grade silicon, also called polysilicon, which is used in the production of wafers, cells and modules for solar power systems.

The Moses Lake plant is designed for annual polysilicon production of 6,500 tonnes, but REC said in December it expected output from the plant this year to be 5,000 tonnes. (Reporting by Joachim Dagenborg; Editing by David Holmes)