Taiwan’s URE increases module capacity by 500 MW

Taiwanese solar module manufacturer United Renewable Energy (URE) has announced it will increase its solar module production capacity by 500 MW this year due to strong domestic demand.

The company specified that it received orders for three large scale PV projects with a capacities of 120, 100 and 70 MW and that total orders have exceeded, by around 500 MW, its current module capacity.

The company also revealed that in 2020 it achieved revenue of TWD12.5 billion (US$448 million) and that its sales accounted for around 40% of the country's total solar demand for last year, which reached 1.5 GW. For 2021, in which around 2 GW of solar capacity should come online, the company expects to increase its domestic market share to 50%.

The company currently has a solar cell production capacity of 2.5 GW while its panel capacity stands at 1.1 GW. “Around 1.5 GW of cell capacity is located in Taiwan while the rest is in Vietnam and Thailand,” it told pv magazine in July. As for the modules, it has 600 MW of production capacity based in Taiwan and 500 MW in Vietnam. “We also outsource about another 200 MW of module [production capacity] from our supplier in Taiwan,” it added.

URE, which was formerly known as Neo Solar Power, became Taiwan's largest PV manufacturer through the merger with Gintech, and Solartech. The company is also active in the project development business and last year it built the country's largest solar facility–a 193 MW project near the city of Tainan.