Taiwan's AU Optronics, a leading flat-screen maker, has kicked off a multi-billion-dollar foray into solar power, one of the island's growth industries, officials and media said Tuesday.
The company late last week broke ground on a plant that will produce silicon wafers, which are widely used in the solar power industry, the Economic Daily News reported.
It said the plant, which is scheduled to go into operation in the fourth quarter of this year, will eventually cost Tw$25 billion ($850 million).
AU Optronics also plans to spend Tw$73 billion on a solar cell manufacturing plant in central Taiwan, with construction expected to kick off before the year's end, it said.
Taiwan's parliament passed a major renewable energy bill in 2009 aimed at adding between 6,500 and 10,000 megawatts of installed energy from renewable sources over the next 20 years.
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