Sharp Corp, the world’s second- largest maker of solar batteries, intends to increase its capacity to produce thin-film solar cells six-fold to meet energy demand in Europe, India and the US.
The company will raise the capacity to 6 gigawatts as early as 2014, from 1 gigawatt estimated for 2010, Toshishige Hamano, a vice president in charge of Osaka-based Sharp’s solar-battery division, told reporters yesterday at its factory in Nara Prefecture, Japan.
Sharp, which lost its market-leading position to Thalheim, Germany-based Q-Cells AG last year, is focusing on expanding its solar-cell output through thin-film technology. This uses 1 percent of the amount of silicon needed for conventional models.
“Thin-film solar batteries will be more popular than conventional types because of lower production cost,” Hamano said.
Sharp is aiming for a 50 percent share of the thin-film solar cell market by 2012, Hamano said, without providing a comparative figure.
The company yesterday started shipping solar cells from the Nara plant, which has capacity of 160 megawatts a year using thin-film technology.
It is spending ¥72 billion (US$679 million) to build another thin-film solar battery plant in Osaka, which will have capacity of 480 megawatts.
Separately, The 2008 Taiwan International Photovoltaic Forum will begin next Tuesday at the Taipei International Convention Center, with several top executives from prominent companies in the field invited to deliver keynote speeches, organizers said yesterday.
Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) officials said three main topics were selected for this year, including “the current status of and trends in the global photovoltaic industry,” ”the current status of and trends in the global photovoltaic market” and “solar-grade silicon.”
Foreign speakers include Muramatsu Tetsurou, general manager of Sharp’s solar systems group, Erik Thorsen, president and CEO of REC Group, Ernesto Macias Galan, general manager of Isofoton and president of the European Photovoltaic Industry Association, and Lei Ting, vice president of Suntech Power Holdings Co (尚德).
Several executives from local companies such as Auria Solar Co (宇通), Gintech Energy Corp (昱晶), Lucky Power Technology (奈米龍) and Sino-American Silicon Products Inc (中美矽晶) have also been invited.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
Hong Kong authorities ramped up sales of the local dollar as the greenback’s slide threatened the foreign-exchange peg. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) sold a record HK$60.5 billion (US$7.8 billion) of the city’s currency, according to an alert sent on its Bloomberg page yesterday in Asia, after it tested the upper end of its trading band. That added to the HK$56.1 billion of sales versus the greenback since Friday. The rapid intervention signals efforts from the city’s authorities to limit the local currency’s moves within its HK$7.75 to HK$7.85 per US dollar trading band. Heavy sales of the local dollar by
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
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