Applied Materials will adopt solar energy in its US$255-million development center in Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi Province.
The move will allow it to tap into China's booming photovoltaic (PV) equipment market, the world's biggest semiconductor equipment maker said yesterday.
As a national policy, China plans to invest heavily to develop renewable energy resources, such as wind, nuclear and solar, to reduce dependence on fossil fuels.
Adoption of the strategy became more urgent when the international oil price soared to US$100 a barrel recently, industry insiders said.
"The transfer (from semiconductor to PV) was dramatically fast as we have a high level of experience in nano-level manufacture," Michael Splinter, Applied Materials' president and chief executive, said at a press conference in Shanghai.
Applied Materials will provide clients in Germany, Spain, Italy, India and China with equipment to make large-size solar panels, which improve efficiency of solar cells and reduce cost-per-watt of solar power.
Applied Materials announced a US$1.9-billion contact to provide an unidentified client PV equipment to build a solar panel factory, the world's largest.
"Solar panel manufacture is the industry trend, though it's still in its infancy in China," said Dylen Liu, an analyst at SEMI, a US-based research firm.
China's accumulated PV installation is expected to reach 300 million watt by 2010, up from only 80mw and 10mw annually, according to SEMI.
China is the world's largest solar water heater market with 30 million household users. The nation is the third-largest maker of solar cells in the world. China now has a policy to speed up solar energy use in the domestic market, Splinter said.
About 10 percent of energy consumption should come from renewable sources by 2010 and a rise to 15 percent in by 2020, according to the National Development and Reform Commission.
Applied Materials said China was the only region in the world with high-growth spending on semiconductor equipment.
(Shanghai Daily March 20, 2008)
