Taiwan Aims for Self-Sufficiency in Solar Silicon Materials

July 14, 2006

The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) is planning to build and complete a solar silicon materials production system within three years, said Huang Ing-san, Minister of Economic Affairs.

The system is meant to address a lack of polysilicon for Taiwan's solar optoelectronics industry with the ultimate goal of achieving self-sufficiency, and would supply at least 100 megawatts of power from its own silicon materials production.

The MOEA Bureau of Energy recently held the "Solar Optoelectronics Development Strategies Forum", inviting representatives of upstream chip factories and "green" businesses, including Motech and DelSolar. The Solar Electricity Center under the Industrial Technology and Research Institute (ITRI) also attended, and the discussion topics centered on strategies for developing solar optoelectronic energy.

As the lack of polysilicon materials among upstream suppliers has hindered the development of solar optoelectronics industry in Taiwan, the question of how to build a self-sufficient supply system elicited an enthusiastic discussion at the forum.

At the forum, Bureau of Energy Chief Yeh Hui-qing noted the MOEA has already presented a number of proposals to address the self-sufficiency problem, which include using already-existing technology from Siemens; building upon Siemens' technology; using technology from the Russian Academy of Sciences; bringing in consultants from abroad; or using pyrometallurgy purification technology from ITRI.

The bureau is reviewing these options and plans to start test production by next year at the earliest, aiming for 300-ton output by 2008 and increasing to 1,000 tons by 2010.

(Economic Daily News)

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