Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) will build the nation’s largest solar power plant with a capacity of 4,000kWp (kilowatt-peak) in Kaohsiung County, a local business daily reported yesterday.
The state-owned utility said the proposed solar power plant would begin commercial operation at the end of next year, with total procurement business opportunities worth NT$1.17 billion (US$35.8 million), the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported.
The company’s announcement came after Minister of Economic Affairs Yiin Chii-ming (尹啟銘) said on Tuesday the government planned to implement several measures to help reduce power consumption and carbon dioxide emissions in the nation.
Taipower will announce the opening of bids for the project next month, which is likely to attract companies in the fields of photovoltaic modules, electronics modules, electric wires and cables and transformers, the paper said.
Taipower will declare the winning bid, it said.
The Economic Daily News said that Motech Industrial Inc (茂迪), the nation’s biggest solar-cell maker which is already involved in other solar photovoltaic projects, and Delta Electronics Inc (台達電子), the world’s largest maker of power systems for computers and game machines, are both very likely to take part in the bidding.
Aside from Taipower, state-owned oil refiner CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) said it was also interested in diversifying into the solar photovoltaic industry, the paper said, citing CPC chairman Shih Yen-shiang (施顏祥).
“The development of the solar photovoltaic industry will become a trend in the future,” Shih said.
“CPC will reevaluate the possibility of [investing in the industry]. However, the company needs to conduct further studies to determine in which area it wishes to participate,” Shih said.
CPC initially planned to venture into the production of polysilicon, an upstream product in the solar photovoltaic chain, but later abandoned the plan, the paper said, without specifying the reasons.
However, some solar photovoltaic companies said the government’s latest announcement would only provide limited aid to their operations because the scale of the project is small.
The newspaper quoted Motech chairman Simon Tsuo (左元淮) as saying that if the government could provide assistance, it could help bolster local demand for solar energy.
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