PV cell and module manufacturer TSEC Corporation has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the government of Pingtung County to aid the development of up to 1GW of solar PV capacity in southern Taiwan.
A basket of publicly-listed solar cell and module manufacturers on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TSE) have continued to build sales momentum through September as demand increased for products from China, Europe and the US.
China’s National Energy Administration (NEA) recently reported that the country added 7.21GW of solar PV in the first quarter of 2017, roughly 70MW more than in the prior year period, yet sales by many Taiwan based suppliers of solar cell and modules have remained between 30 to 40% lower than the prior year period.
Many key PV manufacturers in Taiwan are still reporting monthly sales in February, 2017 that are well below the levels set in the first half of 2016, due primarily to the expected boom in China’s downstream PV market, which has yet to take hold.
PV Tech’s preliminary analysis of global PV manufacturing capacity expansion announcements in November 2016 highlight the continued lack of new plans in China and the overall collapse in plans globally that has continued since May 2016.
