Tatung Increases Investments in Photovoltaic Industry

Taipei, Oct. 22, 2010 (CENS)--While Tatung Corp. recently announced it will furnish a factory in Taipei County with production lines for turn out crystalline silicon ingots enough for making 300 megawatts of solar cells, its photovoltaic subsidiary Green Energy Technology Inc. broke ground on Oct. 20 to construct a new factory in Kaohsung.

According to Tatung Chairman W.S. Lin, the company's heavy electrical equipment factory in Sanshia Township of Taipei County will set aside part of its space for accommodating ingot manufacturing equipment to support Green Energy's Kaohsiung factory, making the company get involved in photovoltaic manufacturing on its own for the first time.

The Tatung factory will become a strong backup for Green Energy, whose production capacity, Green Energy's president, H.L. Lin reported, would be completely inundated by contracts until the end of this year.

Green Energy's new factory, located in the Southern Taiwan Science Park, would start volume production in the second quarter of 2011, with set capacity of 1.5 gigawatts.

Tatung's Lin noted Tatung and its subsidiaries plan to deploy a photovoltaic-manufacturing capacity on the two sides of the Taiwan Straits capable of turning out a total of three gigawatts of crystalline ingots and wafers in 2011 and 2012.

Green Energy plans to invest NT$5.77 billion (US$186 million at US$1:NT$31) to equip the new factory with a capacity of putting out 500 megawatts of crystalline silicon wafers for solar-cell makers.

The Sanshia factory is projected to start producing the ingots in the second quarter next year. A total of 40 ingot furnaces will be installed at the factory early next year.

Industry executives estimated new investments would allow Tatung to stay ahead of Sino-American Silicon Products, Inc. in Taiwan's crystalline silicon industry.