Taipei, Dec. 17, 2008 (CENS)--Sunmaterials Technology Co., Ltd., a polycrystalline silicon affiliate of rectifier maker Taiwan Semiconductor Co., Ltd., is accelerating installation of its production line in conjunction with its plan to begin volume production by the end of 2008.

The company estimated it would be able to offer silicon materials for solar-cell manufacturing at selling prices far below existing price tags offered by the establishments as soon as its first line begins to put out 500 tons of the materials as planned.

The company`s executives pointed out the company will sell its products at tens of U.S. dollars per kilogram, vs. hundreds of U.S. dollars now charged by producers. The less-expensive pricing, Taiwanese industry watchers pointed out, would make cell production more competitive especially at a time when global economy is recessing.

The company plans to ramp up output to 3,500 metric tons a year in the middle of 2009 and 20,000 metric tons in three years, an amount enough for producing two gigawatts of cells.

Although many Taiwanese heavyweight enterprises like Formosa Plastics Corp. and CPC Co., Ltd. have vowed to jump on the bandwagon of photovoltaic-materials business, none of them has entered into the production. Sunmaterials will likely become the first of them to start the production once it completes the production line.

Sunmaterials Chief Technology Officer Y.S. Wu claims the company employs an uncommon production methodology to make highly purified polycrystalline silicon, effectively bringing down production cost and pollution.
(by Ken Liu)