Integrated Micro-Electronics Inc. (IMI) will start mass production of solar panels this year, following on from the development of different types of solar modules by its renewable energy unit in Fremont, California.
Integrated Micro-Electronics Inc. (IMI), a subsidiary of Ayala Corporation, the holding company of one of the oldest and largest business groups in the Philippines, will start mass production of solar panels this year. This move follows on from the development of different types of solar modules by its renewable energy unit in Fremont, California.
IMI president Arthur Tan reported during the company’s annual stockholders’ meeting that IMI Energy Solutions, a division of IMI USA, had provided solar panel co-development, prototyping and low-volume production to North American companies with varied technologies, including concentrated photovoltaics (CPV) with co-generation of water heater and electricity, glass-on-glass solar panel and glass-on backsheet.
“By 2012, IMI will venture into mass production of solar panels,” Tan said.
IMI anticipates the mass production of solar panels this year in Jiaxing, a city in northern Zhejiang province of eastern China.
Tan said that IMI would likely produce solar panels with a capacity of 10 megawatts in the first year of mass production, in line with its current capacity.
“The panels are slated to be consumed in Australia and China,” Tan said, adding that IMI was likewise looking at a potential market in India.
In 2009, IMI set up a strategic partnership with Renewable Energy Test Center (RETC), a California-based engineering services, test and certification provider for photovoltaics (PV) and renewable energy products.
IMI Energy Solutions was created in Fremont in 2010 as a division of IMI USA to develop and manufacture solar panels and other related technologies, while IMI’s Design and Development Group in Singapore also developed a solar inverter platform.