We have tracked the annual R&D spending of 12 key publicly listed PV module manufacturers over the last 10 years. We present our new methodology with a broader scope which reveals record levels of investment in solar innovation.
For all intents and purposes, 2018 may be remembered as the year that Taiwanese solar manufacturing moved from its former cell-making glory days of the past (Taiwan solar 1.0) to adjust to the new reality as defined by China’s bulldozing annihilation of cash-struck overseas manufacturing regions in recent times.
Since Chinese investments into major cell and module facilities started - more than 10 years ago - success ultimately has been driven by overseas market-share gains, above other technical or financial benchmarks that otherwise would be expected.
As PV Tech previously reported, Taiwan’s solar industry supply chain failed to recover lost revenue in 2017, despite strong global demand growth and expectation that installations topped 100GW.
The planned merger of Taiwan-based PV manufacturers Gintech Energy, Neo Solar Power (NSP) and Solartech Energy to be called United Renewable Energy Co (UREC) is to receive an investment from the Taiwan government, according to reports.
The majority of Taiwanese solar industry companies that are public listed on the TSE have recently reported December, 2017 sales figures, highlighting how elusive the recovery in sales has been in 2017.
Leading Taiwanese solar cell and module manufacturer Motech Industries said it was entering into a Joint Venture (JV) with metallisation paste supplier, Giga Solar Materials Corp to establish a solar module assembly plant in Taiwan to meet future domestic demand.
What a start to the PV Taiwan 2017 week! There have been some rather tame mergers and acquisitions in the solar PV industry over the years - not to mention the shuffling of zombie factories within China – but the news today that Neo Solar Power, Gintech Energy Corp., and Solartech Energy are planning to merge is worthy of far more scrutiny.
As expected, three of Taiwan’s merchant solar cell and module producers, Gintech Energy Corp, Neo Solar Power (NSP) and Solartech Energy have officially announced plans to merge and exit the ‘foundry’ business model they were founded on.
Three of Taiwan’s merchant solar cell and module producers, Gintech Energy Corp, Neo Solar Power (NSP) and SolarTech Energy have separately announced the suspension of trading of their stocks on the Taiwan Stock Exchange beginning on October 16.
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.
After several months of lacklustre sales from many key PV manufacturers in Taiwan, indicating an expected boom in China’s downstream PV market had yet to gain momentum, March sales data indicates improving market demand, yet not at the levels seen in the prior year quarter.
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.
