E-ton expanding solar cell range and production

E-ton Solar Tech Co (益通光能), the nation's second-largest solar cell maker, is planning to introduce more products within a year to cash in on the renewable energy market, the company's president, Tsai Chin-yao (蔡進耀), said yesterday.

Taiwan has an edge in manufacturing electronics products and companies should take advantage of the solar energy rush, he told reporters on the sidelines of the Taipei International Photovoltaic Forum yesterday.

He refused to give details, but said that the company might manufacture the products itself or team up with other firms.

This will be E-ton's latest move to tap into the widening applications of renewable energy in consumer electronics. Computer motherboard maker Micro-Star International Co (微星科技), for instance, has introduced prototypes of MP3 players and notebooks powered by solar energy.

With the company's third production plant starting to operate last month and its fourth plant scheduled to be completed by the end of the year, E-ton's solar cell production capacity is set to hit 100 megawatts this year, up from 33 megawatts at present.

With three more plants in the pipeline, output will be boosted to 200 megawatts by the end of next year, he added.

The demand will mainly be driven by new clients in Spain and Italy, Tsai said, adding that the global shortage of polysilicon -- the main active component used in producing solar cells and semiconductor wafers -- would not affect E-ton as it had control over supplies.

E-ton's shares closed down 0.13 percent at NT$780 (US$24.2) on the over-the-counter market yesterday.

Organized by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (外貿協會), yesterday's forum gathered big names in the solar cell field such as Sharp Corp, Q-Cells Asia Ltd, Schott Solar Inc, Kyocera Corp and Taiwan's Motech Industries Inc (茂迪).

Motech is the nation's largest solar cell maker and ranks ninth in the world, the government-funded Industrial Technology Research Institute (工研院) reported last month. Sharp of Japan is the world's largest solar cell producer.

Speakers at the forum shared their views on the status and trends in the global photovoltaic industry, possible solutions to the polysilicon shortage and the challenges facing the solar cell industry.

Currently accounting for less than 1 percent of the world's power partly because of its high costs, solar power is one of the fastest-growing sectors in energy generation.

Global solar cell production capacity is estimated to reach 2.82 gigawatts in 2010 from 1.73 gigawatts last year, according to the institute.