50% of Solar Cell Production Equipment for Taiwan to be made locally by 2009
News from LexisNexis
Zep Hu — Central News Agency – Taiwan , May 8, 2007
http://www.reed-electronics.com/semiconductor/articleXml/LN609939724.html??industryid=3028
Only 18 percent to 20 percent of the production equipment used by Taiwanese solar cell manufacturers is “made-in-Taiwan”, but the government has vowed to raise that to 50 percent by 2009, a senior officials at the Ministry of Economic Affairs announced Tuesday during a review of Taiwan solar energy industry. Meanwhile, according to the ministry, the government has provided incentives bringing NT$2.84 billion (about US$85 million) of foreign and domestic investments to the industry so far, as well as patent and technology transfers worth NT$ 47.3 million.
Officials noted that goals in next stages include increasing the conversion efficiency of silicon-based solar cells from etween 15 percent and 17 percent to 18 percent and 20 percent, and lowering the cost per kilowatt of silicon-based cells from US$3 to US$2, as well as developing and refining other advanced products, particularly in terms of greater efficiency and lower cost.
In an estimate issued by the Industrial Technology Research Institute, the production value of made-in-Taiwan solar cells has already increased from US$2.8 billion in 2004 to US$21.2 billion in 2006.