KUALA LUMPUR: The Red Solar (M) Sdn Bhd (TRS), a Perak SEDC associate company, has signed a shareholders agreement with Silicon Valley-based Twin Creeks Technologies Inc, (TCTI) a leading designer and manufacturer of proprietary next-generation solar cells, to set up a 100MW scalable production facility for photovoltaic solar panels in Perak.
The signing ceremony was completed on Monday at TCTI’s technology centre and corporate headquarters at the Silicon Valley, San Jose, California.
With this, Perak will soon host a cutting-edge photovoltaic (PV) cell production facility involving an initial foreign direct investment of US$75 million (RM249 million) from TCTI to produce 100MW of PV cells per annum by 2012, creating about 1,000 high-tech jobs in the state.
The investment by TCTI was eventually expected to hit US$250 million when the plant hit the 100MW PV cells production, said TRS executive chairman and CEO Datuk Rais Hussin Mohamed Ariff.
TRS would contribute RM39.9 million to the venture in the form of land and infrastructure costs, said Rais Hussin.
He added that the joint venture was the result of a successful Perak trade and investment delegation mission to the Silicon Valley late last year led by the Perak Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Zambry Abdul Kadir.
Founder and CEO of TCTI, Siva Sivaram said TCTI was founded in early 2008 with a simple premise — towards bringing affordable solar energy to all parts of the world without using toxic new materials.
“The team at TCTI feels passionately about solar: we believe that solar energy is the answer to some of the key problems of our times: high energy cost, local energy security and global warming,” he said.
Blessed with an ideal location, well laid-out scenic towns like Ipoh and logistically well-connected to sea ports and the KLIA, Perak is aggressively promoting itself and specifically the Meru MSC-designated area as the preferred location for high-tech industries.
Solar PV production is one such industry that could benefit from what Perak has to offer.
Malaysia is situated in the equatorial region with an average radiation of 4,500KWh per square metre and is an ideal location for large-scale solar power installations. Considering that Malaysia gets on average 4.5 hours to eight hours of free and bountiful sunshine everyday, the potential for solar power generation is very high.
“However, the real harnessing of this renewable energy source is way below its actual potential,” said Rais Hussin.
Under the Eighth Malaysia Plan, a target of 5% was set for renewable energy out of the total electricity production but the target has not been achieved.
Several factors contribute to this and these issues are as global and as prevalent in other countries as in Malaysia.
They include a lack of awareness that’s closely tied to the easy availability of fossil fuel and the capital cost of solar coupled with restricted access to finance.
Rais Hussin said TRS was hoping to overcome the latter issues (see the upcoming The Edge June 14, [email protected] on the financing model TRS hopes to introduce.)
The eventual production is slated to be 500MW per annum. “The Perak-based facility’s unique proposition is low-cost production without embedding toxic materials in the final product,” added Rais Hussin.
Work on the facility is expected to begin within the next three months.
This article appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, June 10, 2010.