Taiwan-based, global conductive paste manufacturer, Giga Solar announced its plan to develop up to 100MW of solar PV plants by 2017 in the world as well as a specific plan to build a paste manufacturing facility in China in 2016.
Power plant development
Giga Solar announced the commence operation of its latest solar power plant in Japan, the Kyushu Asakura 5.5MW solar power plant. Giga Solar has developed approximately 32MW of PV plants in Taiwan and Japan, and aims to increase its global capacity to 100MW by 2017 so that its subsidiary, owning all of the plant assets, could be listed in 2018.
Giga Solar’s Vice President, Mr. Lee, said “We plan to add more than 30MW of solar power plant assets each year to bring our total assets to 100MW by 2017, and Thailand and the Philippines are two of our target markets for future projects.” He added that the Philippines is an ideal nation for developing PV projects because it has favorable incentives, long sunshine duration, and strong demand to various energy resources. Thailand, on the other hand, is another highly potential market as its government just announced a roadmap to add 6GW of solar projects nationwide in following years.
Paste plant in China
To meet China’s greater and greater demand to conductive pastes for PV cells, Giga Solar unveils a plan to build a paste manufacturing facility in northern Suzhou, China. According to Mr. Lee, the company is currently selecting positions for the facility. The facility could start operating soonest by the second half of 2016.
Approximately 40% of Giga Solar’s total revenue is contributed by its Chinese customers, pointed Mr. Lee. Additionally, demand to rear AG/AI pastes is becoming more visible in China. To offer more cost-competitive conductive pastes to its Chinese clients, Giga Solar decided to establish a new manufacturing facility for replacing its current office, which is majorly responsible for technology development and sales.
The board of directors is accumulating capital up to NTD 4 billion through publishing ECB. 50% of the financed capital will be used for procuring raw materials while the other 50% will be used for investment in PV projects and the China plant.