Motech Forms Partnership With Solar Semiconductor

Taipei, May 16, 2008 (CENS)--Motech Industrial and Solar Semiconductor recently agreed to collaborate on development of thin-film solar cell technology and silicon-wafer supplies shortly after Motech received Solar's lucrative orders for 120 megawatts of solar cells.

Industry watchers estimated the orders at over NT$10 billion (US$333 million at US$1:NT$30), given that one megawatt of solar cell now sells for around NT$100 million (US$3.3 million).

Solar Semiconductor is among the top three Indian suppliers of solar modules, specializing in polycrystalline and mono-crystalline solar modules.

Although Motech, a leading Taiwanese solar-cell maker, has declined to confirm reports on the contracts, Solar Semiconductor President Hari Surapaneni already announced the deal and said Motech is his company's partner in high-end solar modules.

Indian government has been pushing hard the use of solar energy, creating an Indian market for renewable energies estimated at US$19 billion over the next five years. The recent contracts give Motech a chance to enter the lucrative market.

Motech is boosting capacity at a factory in the Southern Taiwan Science Park and a factory in Kunshan of mainland China. The factory in the science park is planned to have maximum output of 100 megawatts of cells by the end of this year while the Kunshan factory's added capacity will start to run in July this year.

Last month alone, Motech had revenue of NT$1.9 billion (US$64 million), up 16.3% from a month earlier. The April result helped swell the company's revenue for the first four months up to NT$6.8 billion (US$228 million), increasing 52% year on year.