GUH seeks approval for solar farm in Taiwan
GEORGE TOWN : GUH Holdings Bhd, one of the largest manufacturers of printed circuit boards (PCBs) in the country, is working towards securing approvals for its first overseas solar farm project in Taiwan.
According to its group managing director Datuk Seri Kenneth H’ng, (pic) the project involves a Taiwanese partner, and it is expected to cost hundreds of millions of ringgit.
“A large-scale project of 30MW will cost between RM150mil and RM180mil to develop and can support 20,000 homes, ” H’ng told StarBiz.
A solar power plant of 200MW can support about 130,000 homes.
He said: “We have identified a site in the southern part of Taiwan for the large-scale solar farm.
“We hope to secure the necessary approvals for the solar farm within the next 24 months.
“If everything runs on schedule, we expect the solar farm to start operating either in 2023 or 2024.
“This new enterprise will complement our core PCB business and will become a second core business that will contribute positively to GUH’s revenue in the future, ” he added.
H’ng pointed out that the prospects of the solar power generation business in Taiwan is bright.
Research house, GlobalData, reported that Taiwan could ramp up its solar PV deployment exceeding 2GW annually in the coming years, towards achieving its goal of 20GW in 2025, which is sufficient to support about four million homes.
“Taiwan is also estimated to add a record 2.25GW of new solar PV deployment in 2020.
“It has a solar plan for 2019-2020 that is expected to bring US$7.5bil of investments into the sector and boost total capacity to 6.5GW by end-2020.
“The operators of solar power generation projects will be guaranteed a feed-in tariff (FIT) fixed for 20 years from the installation date.
“The FIT will ensure that all the operators break even within 10 years, ” H’ng added.
For the first half of the financial year 2020, GUH posted a net loss of RM5.9mil on the back of RM109.7mil revenue.
This is compared with a net profit of RM4.1mil and a revenue of RM168mil achieved in the same corresponding period in 2019.
“We foresee the market for the remainder of the year to remain soft, ” he added.
However, the group is optimistic for a recovery in 2021, aid H’ng.
GUH’s PCBs are used in major brands of home appliances.
According to an Industry Research Global Home Appliance Market Size, Manufacturers, Sales Channel, and Clients 2020-2026 report, the global home appliance market size currently valued at US$615.5mil and it is expected to reach US$932.4mil by the end of 2026.
“A Grand View research report says the global smart washing machine market size, valued at US$4.9bil in 2019, is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 20.5% from 2020 to 2027.
“The rise in the number of new laundry service outlets and demand for commercial laundry equipment will fuel the growth, ” he added.
The group has recently subscribed to Yabisi Solar Power Co Ltd, a joint-venture company in which GUH holds a 60% stake, to explore the solar farm project
Source : thestar
