Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. has announced it will supply solar panels for what will be the largest solar farm in Taiwan. The new 4.7MW solar farm located in Young’an, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, is owned and operated by the Taiwan Power Company and will be developed by Fortune Electric Co., Ltd..
The solar power plant will nearly double the country’s current installed solar power capacity of about 5MW.
Suntech solar panels were chosen for their demonstrated performance and reliability in large scale PV installations across Asia, Europe and the Americas according to Liao Wen Sing, Vice President of Fortune Electric Co., Ltd.
Delivery of 16,640 280 watt polycrystalline solar panels will begin in June 2010 and the solar farm is scheduled to commence operations in early 2011. The project signifies a considerable contribution to Taiwan’s efforts to raise renewable energy production capacity by more than 10GW in the next two decades and to reduce carbon emissions to year-2000 levels by 2025. Taiwan enjoys abundant sunlight, so solar power is expected to comprise a substantial share of Taiwan’s future energy portfolio.
With the exception of Australia, the Asia Pacific region per capita electricity consumption is far less than the world’s average, but overall accounts for around one third of the world’s total energy demand. A November 2009 report by the Asian Development Bank predicted energy demand in Asia and the Pacific will grow by an estimated 2.4 percent each year for the next twenty years, a cumulative 80% increase between 2005 and 2030.
Roger Ye, Suntech’s President of Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa (APMEA) says the region’s booming populations, strong economic growth engines, and substantial sunlight resources represent an exciting opportunity for solar power and for Suntech.
