Investment Opportunities in the PV Industry in Taiwan...2013/09/30 · 1 Investment Opportunities...
Transcript of Investment Opportunities in the PV Industry in Taiwan...2013/09/30 · 1 Investment Opportunities...
1
Investment Opportunities in the
PV Industry in Taiwan
I. Reasons to invest in the PV industry in Taiwan
1. Number two PV exporting country in the world
2. Complete PV industrial chain from the upstream to the downstream
3. Industrial environment of semiconductor and panel industries
4. Competitive advantages of Taiwan and China are complementary to one another
5. Diverse cluster development systems for related industrial clusters
II. Current status of the PV industry in Taiwan
(1) Current status and development trends of the PV industry in Taiwan
Since the industrial output will become clear in the fourth quarter in 2011, the
price of Polysilicon is expected to decline by the end of this year. It is forecast that
the price will likely come down to below US$20 per kg and the material resource war
will be fierce in 2012.
In the next two years, there will be a surplus for solar cells in the market and the
price of Polysilicon materials will sharply decline as China and South Korea start mass
production of materials, and this will further put downward pressure on the prices of
polysilicon solar cells. As it is getting closer to the completion of Grid Parity project
undertaken by countries in which electricity is costly, governments in these countries are
likely to suspend or even terminate their subsidy programs. By them, the government can
focus on expanding domestic demands while suppliers put their emphasis on integrating
BIPV applications and enhance added values for the integrated applications.
2
1. Developments in the industry
For the semiconductor industry, TFT-LCD industry, LED industry, and IT
power electronics industry in Taiwan, their industry clusters are complete and
involve not only suppliers, but also academic community, industrial research
institutes and related industrial associations. If classified in a deep level, then the
entire industry can be divided into the upstream and downstream of silicon materials,
silicon wafer manufacturing, solar cells, solar modules, peripheral equipment and
back-end system integrators. There are about 30 domestic suppliers in this industry,
and the total investment is more than NTD$100 million.
The chart below is the forecast of Solarbuzz for the worldwide solar
photovoltaics cell market (including both optimistic and conservative estimates).
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Wildcard 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 800 2,400 4,800
SB incremental (low-risk)
0 0 0 0 0 0 326 2,556 6,895 16,089
Planned (at risk) 0 0 0 0 0 0 602 2,436 5,316 7,295
Installed / Planned (low-risk) 2,197 3,429 6,618 9,734 20,769 24,387 35,932 39,838 41,422 42,938
0
20,000
40,000
60,000
80,000 Production (MW)
Source: Solarbuzz (Q2, 2011)
Chart 1 Forecast of Worldwide Solar Photovoltaics Cell Market
3
The chart below is the forecast for the thin-film photovoltaic battery market
(about 25% of the solar photovoltaics cell). The market size of the thin film silicon
market will shrink as a result of the low price trend of the silicon batteries and the
impact of low photoelectric conversion efficiency; First Solar (CdTe Solar Cell) will
continue to enforce the “copy smart” strategy to expand its product lines in emerging
markets and CIGS will seek to secure its markets;
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
CIGS 1,128 2,027 2,465 2,233 2,595
CdTe 2,204 2,759 3,439 3,679 4,608
a-Si/uc-Si 3,818 4,404 4,775 2,521 2,030
0
5,000
10,000
15,000
Capacity (MW)
Source: Solarbuzz (Q2, 2011)
Chart 2 Forecast of Thin Film Photovoltaic Battery Market
2. Analysis of the external environment
◆ Italy:
● Until 2016, the government will set a budget of EUR 1.94 billion to
subsidize installations of large solar photovoltaic systems (installed after
June 2011) and subsidization is available for systems with power capacity of
up to 12.5GWp.
4
● For the period from June to December 2011, the budget ceiling for system
subsidization is EUR 300 million for systems with power capacity of up to
1,200MWp; in 2012, the total subsidization amount will be lowered to EUR
280 million and the power capacity will become 1,490MWp for eligible
system subsidization.
● In addition to installation subsidies, the government also provides bill
subsidies for certain projects. For instance, a 5% project subsidy will be
available for systems installed in landfills, contaminated lands or small
towns with a population of 5,000 or less. EUR 0.05 per degree subsidy will
also be available for systems using solar modules instead of corrugated roof
sheets.
● The subsidy program also encourages use of solar modules and inverters
manufactured in Europe. For systems using 60% or more of components
made in Europe, a 10% subsidy is available and this will impact the sales of
modules manufactured in China.
◆ France:
● As the sun hours and sunlight strengths are different between south France and
north France, the FIT ranges from Euro 31.4 ~ 37.7 cents and the government is
pushing to install building-integrated photovoltaic systems and BIPV
development. FIT can go as high as EUR 50 cents, but the sun hours and
sunlight strengths are still less than that in Italy and Greece.
◆ Greece:
● For roof systems, FIT is as high as EUR 55 cents per degree. For large power
plants, FIT can go as high as EUR 50~ 40 cents. Greece has the highest FIT and
strongest sunlight strength, but due to ineffective administrative performance,
only 32MW of systems were installed in 2009.
5
◆ US: The federal subsidy is based on federal taxes and needs to rely on state
policies
● Unlike Europe, the US relies mostly on ground power plants for power
generation and not much on systems installed on the roof of residential
buildings. The Federal Government will subsidize up to 30% of system
installation fees with ITC, or investment tax credit. The US was hit by the
financial tsunami in 2009 and most enterprises are still suffering from loss and
so the tax credit does not seem to work effectively. Thus, the government also
provide a cash subsidy for systems installed between 2009 and 2010.
◆ Japan: central and local governments will push the subsidy programs aimed to
drive explosive growth in the market
● In 2009, the central government reinitiated the installation subsidy program to
subsidize JPY70,000 per kw. Residents could sell back extra electricity and
after November 2010, the price per degree has increased from JPY$24 to
JPY$48.
● With all these initiatives (subsidy from both the central government and local
government, savings in electronic bills, selling back extra electricity), it is
estimated that some of the families can recoup the installation fees in 10 years
and this can also stimulate the market.
● After the 311 earthquake, the expectations for solar power continue to grow and
in terms of solar cells, their sales grew 70% in 2010 and are expected to
increase in 2011 as demands for household electricity are on the rise. However,
the development of solar power plants is not as smooth as expected.
Although solar cells are the most expected renewable energy, their
development is still directly affected by government policies. Maybe the market will
only develop with national subsidy programs in the end.
6
The chart below depicts the solar cell distribution in the worldwide market:
Source: Energy Trend (2012)
Chart 3 2012 Distribution Forecast of Solar Cells in the World Market
The growth potentials of solar cells in the US, Mediterranean countries, China,
India, Korea and the Japanese markets are still very strong. The market size of the
Europe market is about 40~45%, while the US market and markets of some of the
Asia countries are expected to take off. Because of geographic advantages, the
Mediterranean countries are perfect for developing solar power systems and new
solar power markets will emerge over time. India has population of 1.2 billion and
foreign suppliers are eyeing this market. In China, with the 12th Five-Year Plan, the
Chinese government will infuse RMB4 trillion into the solar energy market and
hence, market growth is expected. For Japan, due to the 311 Earthquake, the
Japanese government will gradually transform from nuclear power to power by
renewable energy, and solar power will be the dominant power source. The solar cell
industry in Korea is currently under performing and this is because in Korea
emerging industries as well as their markets are first developed by the government.
After they reach the maturity stage in the product lifecycle, the industry will then
7
target marketing products in foreign markets and compete with enhanced systems in
the markets.
Estimated from production in different countries, the competitive landscape
seems clear and in terms of production costs and photoelectric conversion efficiency,
Taiwan suppliers will directly compete with Chinese vendors.
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
RoW (low-risk) 4,390 5,822 6,368 5,442 6,804
US (low-risk) 1,860 2,323 2,708 1,961 1,947
Southeast Asia (low-risk) 3,371 4,206 5,013 5,716 6,907
Germany (low-risk) 3,072 3,314 3,320 2,583 2,703
Japan (low-risk) 3,144 4,170 4,039 4,119 4,534
Taiwan (low-risk) 7,112 9,779 11,131 11,219 12,474
China (low-risk) 28,388 37,830 40,918 34,920 38,961
0
25,000
50,000
75,000
100,000(MW)
Source: Solarbuzz (Q2, 2011)
Chart 4 Distribution Forecast of Solar Cells in the Worldwide Market
Compared to China, the semiconductor and process technologies are the
strengths of Taiwan, but there is not much open space in Taiwan and the sunlight
strength does not remain fixed. Therefore, the market size is rather limited and it is
not suitable to develop silicon solar cells that require large areas. The sun-exposing
areas are fairly small within metropolitan areas in Taiwan and it is rainy most of the
time. This is, however, the perfect occasion for thin films as they feature long wave
and broad absorption area. Plus, the thin film technology can be applied in paints,
8
fibers and construction materials. So, with proper marketing efforts, this product will
become popular in the consumer markets. The table below depicts the development
phases of the solar cell industry in China:
Table 1 Analysis of Solar Cell Development in China
PV Development
Stage in China 1950~1970 1980~2000 2000~2011
Industrial Size Industrial Capacity
~4.5MW
35MW Amorphous
Silicon Module and
3MW non-Silicon
Module in 2003
12GW in 2011, and 34%
of production capacity in
the world
Fields of Applications Military, Aviation,
Aerospace, Traffic and
Weather
No Electric Box Power
plan for the Eastern
Region
Export to Large Power
Plants in European
Countries
Technology Standard Sample Production for
Mono-crystalline
silicon; In-house
Development for
Mono-crystalline
silicon.or Joint
Development with
Japan
Purchase production
equipments of
Monocrystalline
Silicon and
Polycrystalline Silicon
solar cell from western
countries
Independent RD Capacity
Under Government
Support
Representative
Organizations
Institute of
Semiconductors,
Chinese Academy of
Sciences, General
Research Institute for
Nonferrous Metals
Ningbo Zhongyi LDK,
Suntech Power Holdings,
Yingli Solar, Trina Solar,
JA Solar
Source: Topology(2011)
There are more than 20 solar cell plants built in Jiangsu Province alone and the
reasons for close proximity are: 1) need talents with international perspectives; 2)
technology innovation and higher level of quality improvement; 3) high awareness of
the capital market; 4) suitable for establishing contact centers or alliances as all
governments in the world are emphasizing the solar cell industry; and 5) not just
competition among competitors, but also benefits will be produced from collaboration.
9
The solar cell industry is listed as the development focus in the 12th Five-Year
Plan. The Chinese government also established the Golden Sun Program to develop the
western region for the industry as this region has large space and rich sunlight for solar
power plants. In terms of corporate funding, starting from Suntech Power, the trend of
overseas listing has begun in China and a list of solar cell manufacturers (at least ten
manufacturers including Suntech, LDK Solar, Yingli Solar, Renesola, JA Solar, and
Trina Solar) all rushed to go public in New York, the Nasdaq, and London. As for solar
cell manufacturers in Taiwan, none of them choose to go public in other countries.
2010 Status of CIGS Suppliers in the World – Japan and US suppliers can all
achieve 10% of photoelectric conversion rate and the leading US, Japanese, and
German brands are Global Solar (photoelectric conversion rate : 10%) Solar Frontier
(expected production capacity: 1G) and Q-Cells (photoelectric conversion rate: 13%,
highest in the world), respectively.
Table 2 Capacity Analysis of CIGS Solar Cell Manufacturers
CIGS Manufacturers (Country) photoelectric conversion 2010 Industrial Capacity
Global Solar(US) 10% 75MW
Stion(US) 11% 10MW
Nanosolar(US) 10~11% 115MW
MiaSolar(US) 10.4% 40MW
Wurth Solar(Germany) 10.4% 30MW
Solibro(Germany) 13.5% 50MW
Q-Cells(Germany) 13% 174MW
Solar Frontier(Japan) 13.1% 1.08GW
Honda Soltec(Japan) 13% 30MW
Scheuten(Netherlands) 11.4% 3.2MW
Source: IEK, ITRI (2011)
10
III. Operational Status and Future Plans of Important Manufacturers
in the PV industry in Taiwan
To enhance global competitiveness, Taiwan manufacturers all engage in either
horizontal or vertical integrations. Even for Gintech Energy Corp, or the top
manufacturer in Taiwan, they still choose to move toward horizontal integration.
In general, the supply chains of the solar cell industry are classified as
upstream (materials, silicon ingot, wafer), midstream (battery and module), and
downstream (system, inverter, BIPV and other terminal products).
Polysilicon Silicon
Chip Cell Module System/Assembly
Solar
Grade
Silicon
Si Ingot &
Wafers
Wafer-based Solar Cell
-Mono-Si, Multi-Si, GaAs
Thin-film Solar Cell
-a-Si/m-Si, CIS,
-Dye Sensitized Solar Cell
PV
Modules
PV System -Inverter, BOS… PV Installation PV Product
Taiwan Polysilcon
Corporation
Formosa Silicon
Sun Materials
Top Green Energy
Technologies
Motech Industries
Incorporated
RUEI CHANG
6 companies
Sino American
Silicon Products Inc.
Green Energy
Technology Inc.
Wafer Works Corp.
Mospec
Semiconductor Corp.
Feng Yi
Optoelectronics
Technology CO.,
LTD
Motech Industries
Incorporated
Eversol Corp.
Solar City
Danen Technology
Corporation
Gigastorage Corp.
6 companies
Silicon Cell: Motech Industries Incorporated, E-Ton Solar Tech
Co., Ltd, Delsolar Co., Ltd, Neo Solar Power Corp., Gintech
Energy Corp., Neo Solar Power Corp., Solartech Energy Corp.,
Mosel Vitelic Inc., Big Sun Energy Technology Inc., TopGreen
Energy Technologies, Inc, Tainergy Tech. Co., Ltd, Unitech,
Ever Energy Company Limited, Sunrise Global Solar Energy,
Corum Solar, Guangzhou Systec Electron Technology Co.,Ltd,
Pan Jit International Inc, Lof Solar Corporation, Topcell Solar
International Co., Ltd, TSEC Corp.
Silicon Thin Film Cell: Green Energy Technology Inc.,
NexPower Technology CORP. , Sun Well Solar Corporation,
Aviso Tech Inc, BeyondPV Co.Ltd., Sunner Solar Co., Ltd.,
Kenmos Technology, SINONAR SOLAR
CIGS Cell: Green Energy Technology Inc., Sunshine PV Corp.,
PVNext Corporation., Jenn Feng, ACHEM
OPTO-ELECTRONIC , Nanowin Tech Co., Ltd, Taiwan
Semiconductor Manufacturing Company
Concentrator Photovoltaic: Visual Photonics Epitaxy Co.,
Ltd,Arima Optoelectronics Corp., Millennium Communication
Co., Ltd, Delta Electronics, Inc., EPISTAR Corporation,
Advanced Wireless Semiconductor Commpany, Arima
EcoEnergy Technologies Corp., Everphoton Energy Corp.,
Compound Solar Technology Corp, HARWARE, SOLAPOINT,
Green Source Technology Co., Ltd, Gye Tay, YA FEI SOLAR
DSSC: Tripod Technology, Everlight Solar, Chang hsing,
Formosa Plastics Group
Tynsolar Corporation
Apollo Solar Energy
Co., Ltd
Kinmac Solar
Gloria Solar Ltd.
Powercom Co., Ltd
ABENI
RITEK
Sintek Photronic Corp.
DJ Solar Company
PST Solar
ANJI Technology Co.,
Ltd
SolatGate Technology
Corp.
PAN JIT
INTERNATIONAL
INC.
Shane PU
China Electric Mfg.
Corporation
Suntop Solar Energy
Co., Ltd
Win Win Precision
Technology Co., Ltd
System: Motech Industries Incorporated, Delta Electronics, Inc.,
Top Tower Technology Co., LTD, Uniergy Engineering Co.,
Ltd, Sunpower Solar, Inc., Deniz Electric Glass Co., Ltd, JU
HUAN, Jin Hua Chen Metal Elvgneering Co., China Electric
Mfg. Corporation, Lawson Trandworld Inc., CSI Technology
Co., Ltd, Shane PU, Topco Scientific Co., Ltd, , Ton Yung
Power Technology Co., Ltd, PHOTOPOW, Pino Technologies
Co., Ltd., Tranergy Technology Co., Ltd, Ablerex Electronics
Co., Ltd, GAO FENG, Arima EcoEnergy Technologies Corp.,
Cock Rooster Lighting Co., Ltd, Jenn Feng, ENDEX
AUTOMATION, YANGYAU ENERGY, Bright Led Electronics
Corp., HIGH GASKET, Kenmec Mechancial Engineering
Co.,Ltd, AUO Solar, LiteON Green Technologies, Inc. ,
EverRich Energy Corporation , Green Energy Technology Inc,
Aviso Tech Inc, Atomtech Group, Sunner Solar
Product: Top Tower Technology Co.,Ltd, Strong & Young, Solar
Power, Taiwan Sun Energy Photoelectric Co., Ltd, Motech
Industries Incorporated, China Electric Mfg. Corporation,
Solarfocus Technology CO., Ltd, TUNG YU T. Y. , Solartron
Inc. Xu-Bang Technology Inc, KE YU, Shin Ho Electrics Co.,
ChenFull International Co., Ltd, YONG JU RI YAO,
Uni-Photon Co.LTD, Nanomars Technology, DENG YANG ,
YII CHERNG , SANE FORCE
Industrial Value Chain, Solar Cell Industry
Source: IDB, IEK, ITRI (2010)
Figure 5 Industrial Chain of Solar Cell Industry in Taiwan
UMC Group was the earliest manufacturer to vertically integrate its supply
chain. UMC Group first founded NexPower Technology Corp, or the thin film solar
module supplier for the midstream, and then entered into the fields of mass
manufacturing, sales and marketing. Its current production capacity is 100MW with
11
a 9~10% photoelectric conversion rate; UMC Group later established Topcell Solar
International and Copartner, upstream solar cell suppliers for RD and mass
production of mono-crystalline silicon cells, multicrystalline cells and GaAs.
Then AUO and TSMC also bet on the thin film market and committed RD
resources for the market. AUO can manufacture CIGS modules by itself (but not yet
for product sales and distribution); TSMC set its CIGS plant in Taichung and the
timing for mass manufacturing is not yet clear.
The midstream suppliers are also starting to seek partners to enhance their
competitiveness. For instance, Gintech Energy Corp. CTCI Corp, Taiwan Fertilizer
and Mitsubishi Corp (Japanese Supplier) have established a cross-industrial and
collaborative alliance. This alliance capitalizes on channeling resources from CTCI,
lands from Taiwan Fertilizer, financial strengths and experience from Mitsubishi to
compete in the marketplace. In the future, the solar cell market will be the battlefield
for groups rather than individual manufacturers.
Additionally, Gintech Energy started its Zhudong plant in May 2011.
Construction for ZhuNan B plant has started and it is estimated that the total
production capacity of Gintech Energy will reach 2.2GW in 2013; Phoenix Silicon
International Corp plans to expand its production capacity to 1.2GW in 2011; Neo
Solar Power Corp has built an operation center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park
for operations in southern Taiwan and production capacity of this facility is expected
to grow from 3.4GW now to 1.6GW in 2011. Through share swaps, Sino-American
Silicon Products and Phoenix Silicon International Corp have entered into a strategic
partnership and they hope that with their vertical integration and strategic alliance,
they can enlarge their operation sizes and enhance their industrial advantages.
The Table below lists operational performance of major participants in the
supply chain. Terminal products are mostly export-oriented, and their sales are
subject to fluctuation in the international market, but the industrial structures and
environments are still health and complete.
12
Table 3 Important Suppliers of the PV Industry in Taiwan/Average Size
/Average Profit (historical)
2012 2011
operating income
(in NTD$
1 millions)
Net Profit
Ratio(%)
operating income
(in NTD$
1 millions)
Net Profit
Ratio(%)
Taiwan TPSI Corp 33.73 -1,012.73 2,367 -73.77
Giga Solar 3,474 17.25 3,055 33.73
DARFON 13,034 1.72 12,375 1.30
Sino-American
Silicon Products 4,373 -54.14 14,856 2.88
Green Energy
Technology 9,836 -36.33 18,615 -12.73
Wafer Works 3,429 -19.40 5,158 1.61
Danen Tech 902 -84.17 3,869 -8.46
Gintech 13,966 -13.77 18,808 -8.44
Motech 10,210 -49.33 20,430 -12.01
E-Ton Solar 2,046 -87.84 6,729 -60.23
Neo Solar Power
Corp. 12,271 -34.01 20,576 -14.08
Solartech Energy
Corp 6,137 -29.59 12,153 -10.10
Tainergy Tech 3,497 -41.56 3,952 -15.25
Powercom 2,004 -55.46 3,241 -41.85
Source: MOPS
(I) Advantages of the PV industry
◆ Complete supply chains, talent pools, and industrial clusters for the midstream
and upstream sectors in the PV industry in Taiwan.
◆ Taiwan is one of the top four PV production countries; the industry expands
rapidly and can provide excellent environments to develop intelligent PV
automation technologies.
13
◆ Silicon chips: solid semiconductor manufacturing and technology management
experiences are available and these experiences can be applied to production
process of silicon chips (components for solar cells) to lower production costs.
◆ Solar cell: rich talent pools of semiconductor professionals are available and the
barrier for entering into the silicon chip and solar cells is very low.
◆ Industrial end: domestic suppliers are very flexible and can raise capital and
expand capacity very fast and this is very beneficial to capitalize on the first
mover advantage and the professional division model is very helpful to increase
production benefits.
(II) Opportunities of the PV industry
◆ Domestic suppliers can rapidly expand their production capacity and demands
for PV equipment can be enlarged. Also, to solve the issue of talent shortages,
domestic suppliers have high demands for production automation. Automation
equipment from overseas vendors are expensive and user-unfriendly and their
lead time is very long and service efficiency is very low. So, they are not popular
among domestic suppliers.
◆ Industrial end:
● Continuous development in the global market
● Applications of architectural integration can be seen as demands in a different
market
● Use downstream module suppliers to perform supply chain consolidation and
integration.
14
The table below details the subsidy policies from the government in Taiwan to
encourage installations of distributed PV systems in private properties.
Table 4 Subsidy Policies for Solar Cells
Item Descriptions of PV initiatives in Taiwan
Subsidy for
Equipment
Highlights of subsidizing installations of PV systems
Condition: applies to only new systems with a capacity of no less than 1 kWp
Subsidized amount: maximum of NTD$150,000 for every kWp and the subsidized
amount shall not exceed 50% of total system installat ion fees. Government
branches, schools and public hospitals located in offshore islands and remote
locations can apply for subsidies of Solar photovoltaic power generation
system for use in emergencies and disasters via municipalities, county or city
governments from Bureau of Energy:
1. for independent systems, the maximum subsidy is NTD$350,000 for every kWp
2. for emergency and disaster prevention systems (hybrid models), the maximum
subsidy is NTD$400,000. After review, if the system provides benefits
associated with disaster prevention, energy benefits, and demonstration effects,
applicants can receive the full balance and it is not subject to restrictions from
the first point.
Subsidy for
Electricity
Consumption
Renewable Energy Development Regulation:
In case the device generates electricity with renewable energy, if the device
capacity is less than 500W, then the device is not subject to articles 97, 98, 100,
101 and 103 in the Electricity Act
Except articles 8, 9 and 14 which have different regulations of renewable energy
power generation devices, the Electricity Act applies to installations, projects,
operations, monitoring, registration and management of the renewable energy
power generation devices.
Taipower Corp. buy back regulation for electricity generated using renewable
energy – the buy back rate is NTD$2 per degree and this applies until the
following conditions occur:
1. announcement of regulations governing development of renewable energy
2. the power generating devices (using renewable energy) for which the
purchasing contract of electricity buy back is signed under has power capacity
of 600,000 W
3. the Electricity Act is revised and published and Taipower Corp has completed
privatization
Practices of
Tax Credit as
Industrial Promotion Regulation: A tax credit of 5~20% of device installation fees
will be provided to companies investing in clean energy devices, and the tax credit
15
Item Descriptions of PV initiatives in Taiwan
Subsidy is valid for five years from the first year of request application
35% of corporate RD expenditures and employee trainings expenses; the tax credit
will be valid for five years from the first year of request application; if the RD
expenditure of the year of subsidy application exceeds the average of the
expenditures from the previous two years or the training expense of the year of
subsidy application exceeds the average of the training expenses from previous
two years, 50% of the exceeded amount can be subsidized.
The remaining tax credit from the last two points can be used in the subsequent
years, but the amount subsidized shall not exceed 50% of the total income tax
* Regulations on Production Promotion will be terminated on December 31st,
2009. Considering the needs of economic and industrial developments for
industries in Taiwan, the Executive Yuan and Ministry of Economic Affairs will
replace the Regulations on Production Promotion with Statute for Creating New
Value for Industries (Draft) to continue the stimulating role of the Regulations
on Production Promotion
Source: Executive Yuan (2011)
Demands and development of renewable energy (especially solar energy) are
the important trends in the international community. The worldwide solar power
systems installed in 2012 reached 32 GW in capacity and the industrial production
exceeded USD$118.5 billion. That figure is expected to reach USD$160 billion in
2014. In merely five years, Taiwan has become the second largest PV production
country in the world.
The industrial production of the PV industry in Taiwan reached NTD$122.8
billion in 2012, or an 27% decline from 2011. There are 135 PV suppliers and 20,000
workers are employed in this industry. The industrial production of the PV
equipment industry reached NTD10.4 billion in 2012 and the self-sufficient ratio
was 30%. Among domestic PV suppliers, Motech, Gintech, Neo Solar Power Corp.,
Solartech Energy Corp and DelSolar expanded their production capacity to 3.4Gw or
higher in 2010 and they invested in 14 production lines that are worth more than
NTD$4.2 billion. In 2011, the total industrial capacity is expected to expand to more
than 8GW with NTD$30 billion and the number of production lines will grow to
more than 300. About 50% of the production lines are manual production lines and
16
the automatic retrieval and transfer and inspection modules is about 15~20% of the
original turnkey equipment cost.
Because the demands in the solar energy market continue to grow and the
trend – rapid market expansion and demand creation through low product prices –
has become clear, known suppliers (such as J&R, ACI, ABB from Europe) and
developed countries such as Japan are actively developing automation production
technologies to lower their reliance on human labor, to increase throughput and
equipment utilization rates and to achieve the goal of doubling the per capita output
level. However, automation equipment from overseas vendors are expensive and
user-unfriendly and their lead time is very long and the interfaces are hard to
integrate. These combined drawbacks cause high breakage rates or production
interruptions. Moreover, the low service efficiency of the distributors make them
ineffective to address user issues. So, they are not popular among domestic suppliers
and users are very negative about these systems. Another issue is that most domestic
suppliers are looking to expand their capacity to GW. They have a lot of production
lines and handle a large quantity of base substrates. Tests on the defectives and
electric property are usually conducted offline. The online tests and production lines
are very difficult to integrate, causing low production capacities and low yield rate.
Furthermore, Turnkey equipment and manual production lines are adopted in the
plant and wafer thickness is reducing from 200μm to 160μm. Because of these
factors, the chance of artificial pollutions and breakage rates become very high
(current breakage rate: 3%). Thus, increasing production capacity for individual
production lines and yield rates are urgent issues suppliers need to address first
before their competitiveness can truly be enhanced.
Currently, the production capacities of Taiwanese suppliers and Chinese
suppliers together make up 50% of the global capacity, but whether it is extracting
silicon materials or manufacturing equipment, our standards and qualities are still far
behind developed countries including Japan and western countries. What Taiwan has
is the quality semiconductor process technologies. If this can be combined with the
17
strengths of China (one stop shop, great bargaining power to lower material prices
with orders of large quantity) to expand production capacity, enhance the
photoelectric conversion rate, to cut down shipping cost, to lower production cost
with effective HR management skills and to offer cheaper but more effective PV
products, then the results will be far better than if Taiwan and China are to go
different ways.
Taiwan has a complete industrial chain of silicon solar cells and industrial gaps
are mostly found in other emerging processing technologies (ex. CIGS research and
development) and new applications (BIPV module). Major cities in Taiwan have
their urban renewal plans in place and the overall environments are very complete.
Thus, these conditions make Taiwan an ideal destination for developing
international trades and BIPV systems foreign investments.