The hosts of the 2011 United Nations Conference of the Parties, South Africa, can boast the completion of its first 1.2MW solar project. With AU Optronics's first venture into Africa, it has built a tracking system PV plant in Lethabo and a ground-mounted PV power plant in Kendal.
Near Johannesburg, in Lethabo, 1,200,000kWh for 800 households will be generated using its high-efficiency solar module SunForte PM318B00, showcased at SNEC 2011 in China earlier this year. While in Kendal, near Pretoria, the 600kW ground-mounted PV power plant is claimed to generate 1,000,000 kWh for 700 households in the region nearby.
Since 2008, AUO has focused on high-efficiency solar modules, produced in Taiwan, which have reached more than 19.5% conversion efficiency. AUO believes it will increase its capacity by more than 50MW in the first quarter of 2012.