At an industrial park near the Malaysian city of Malacca, construction workers are busy building a state-of-the-art factory for AU Optronics, Taiwan’s biggest flat-panel maker. The plant will be one of the biggest of its kind in the world when completed in 2013.
The $1.3bn plant will not be making TV screens or computer monitors, products AU Optronics is known for. Instead, the factory is a joint venture with SunPower of the US, and will produce high-efficiency solar cells used to generate electricity.
The Malaysia plant is just one example of a wave of investment into the solar industry by Asian technology companies. This new interest is evidence that large tech groups believe the global solar industry is on the cusp of an economic breakthrough. The entry of cash-rich South Korean and Taiwanese companies could also spur consolidation in a fragmented sector.