Taiwan's Delta Electronics is to spend 290 million US dollars on a new solar cell plant as the island moves to increase its use of renewable energy, a company spokeswoman said Tuesday.
Delta Electronics' investment, via its subsidiary DelSolar Co, will make it one of the main players in the island's rapidly evolving solar energy sector, said Austin Chiu of DelSolar.
"After the project is finished, we'll become one of the biggest solar cell manufacturers in Taiwan," she told AFP.
The plant will be located near the city of Chunan in northern Taiwan and will be completed within three years, she said.
"The profit margin won't be too high compared with some electronics products," she said.
"However, the demand for products like solar cells is expected to keep rising because of concern about global warming."
Taiwan's government said in December it plans to boost its use of solar panels by a factor of 200 over the next 15 years in an effort to increase clean energy.
Solar panels across the island currently have a capacity of five megawatts, enough to power 500 buildings, but by 2025 that figure is targeted to rise to 1,000 megawatts, the Bureau of Energy said.
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