Taiwan

The Taiwanese PV manufacturer said the project will be the largest solar installation on the island. Construction is scheduled to being near the city of Tainan in the second half of 2020.

Developers of huge solar parks on the island must deal with resistance from the government, other industrial players and the farming sector. Local agricultural producer Taisugar has downsized its plans to build solar plants across 1,000 hectares of land it owns, while semiconductor manufacturer TMSC has denied it is building a massive solar park in Pingtung county, as reported by the Taiwanese media.

German headquartered PV manufacturer Aleo Solar has announced plans to introduce the module in the new year. Like many of its rivals, the company is moving to a larger cell size for the new product, which it says will offer up to 333 W output from a 60-cell format.

Once the world’s second-largest PV cell manufacturer, Taiwan’s upstream industry was crippled under its inability to compete with mainland China’s bullish global takeover in PV manufacturing. The island’s government has put forth efforts to keep Taiwan’s PV supply chain intact – and ambitious goals and initiatives are driving demand from the downstream up.

The Taiwanese manufacturer said the 77 kVA, three-phase device is ideal for solar parks and commercial rooftops. The inverter, which has six maximum power point trackers, is said to have an efficiency of 98.8%.

Philippines-based AC Energy will work with UPC Solar Asia Pacific – the solar energy unit of Hong Kong-headquartered UPC Renewables – to build more than 1 GW of solar in the coming years, with an initial focus on Asian markets such as India, South Korea and Taiwan.

The ever worsening balance sheet of the Hong Kong-based solar manufacturer has triggered the removal of shares listed in Taiwan, which is likely to leave the company with a $2.84 million bill for buying them back.

Prime minister Su Tseng-chang announced the ambition and said the new solar plan for 2019-20 will bring investment and business opportunities of around US$7.5 billion.

Western Australia-based solar glass developer ClearVue has signed a deal with Taiwanese thin-film solar module manufacturer BeyondPV to set up a dedicated production line for solar strip modules at its production facility in the city of Tainan.

While Spain, Sweden, Ukraine and Brazil attracted more funds than last year, China’s transition to an auction-based procurement system and slow performance overall in Europe saw worldwide backing decrease. BloombergNEF does expect investments to ramp up in the second half, however.