The Philippines will become the regional manufacturing hub for photovoltaic cells in Asia when a $300-million solar wafer manufacturing plant is inaugurated Thursday. The plant is located in the Laguna Technopark in Bian, Laguna.
The $300-million facility, the first of its kind in Asia, brings the Philippines at par with other countries because this plant will produce the worlds highest-performance silicon solar cells, Energy Secretary Vincent Perez Jr. said, noting that it is expected to supply 6 percent of the worlds total available market for photovoltaic industry.
8 million wafers will produced annually (25 megawatts of solar-powered electricity at 3.1 watts per wafer). Production is expected to increase to 48 million wafers by 2007 (150 megawatts) of solar electricity.
The plant will produce high-efficiency solar cells, the raw materials for solar panels and modules.
Perez said, The high cost of imported materials is one of the major barriers in the development of solar-based technologies. We are optimistic that the operations of this wafer manufacturing plant will help bring down the costs of solar energy in the country that will eventually redound to a more affordable solar energy.
The facility is a project of the US Department of Energy's Energy Policy Framework, which aims to assist the Philippines into becoming a regional export hub for solar power technology in 10 years.
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