Neo Solar Power Corp (新日光能源), one of the nation’s largest solar cell makers, yesterday announced it had approved a plan to invest US$50 million in a joint venture to expand its presence in the solar power-plant market.
A first in Asia, the joint venture is to operate as a “yield company,” Neo Solar said. A yield company is usually a publicly traded firm that owns assets that generate solar power and produces a steady and predictable profit, it added, saying the business model is usually adopted by energy firms.
“Through this joint venture, Neo Solar will actively invest and build solar power plants to grow profits,” it said in a statement.
Neo Solar posted a net loss of NT$492 million (US$16 million) in the first quarter as prices of solar cells fell due to a slump in demand.
Solar power plants offer stable and long-term cash flow for operators, Neo Solar said.
The company is to hold about 40 percent of the joint venture, which is to provide a new and larger channel for selling Neo Solar’s solar cells and modules in the future, it said.
Neo Solar said General Energy Solutions Inc (永旺能源), a subsidiary that builds solar power systems, would work with the new joint venture to gain more orders to build solar power plants around the world.
Neo Solar did not name its partners, saying only that potential investors include a global solar system developer and equity funds.
To raise operating funds, the joint venture is set to launch an initial public offering on the Hong Kong stock market at the end of this year.
Separately, Giga Solar Material Corp (碩禾), the nation’s largest solar material producer, yesterday launched its first ground-mount solar power plant in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, via a solar power system building subsidiary.
With annual capacity of 17 megawatts, the Japanese plant is expected to generate 20 million units of electricity this year, which would be sufficient for 5,000 households.
Giga Solar said it expects the solar power plant to generate at least NT$125 million in revenue this year and to contribute NT$2 earnings per share for the company.
The company obtained a 20-year contract from the local government to supply electricity, it said.
Giga Solar shares jumped 2.1 percent to NT$536, while Neo Solar’s stock price plunged 6.35 percent to NT$19.9 in Taipei trading yesterday.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day