Solar business from Korea

By Kim Yoo-chul Staff Reporter of The Korea Times Will LG Group join open bidding to buy a controlling stake in Hynix Semiconductor? Group officials and LG sources told The Korea Times that the group's earlier passive stance toward the controlling stake valued at some $3 billion has not yet changed. Months ago, LG Electronics CEO Nam Yong said that the group's electronics unit has no interest in running the chip business and added LG learned how to survive without memory chips. "The group's top decision makers have reached a broad consensus that more measures would be needed to nurture future growth engines. But that doesn't necessarily mean LG will participate in an auction next month," an LG representative said Wednesday. "We are now busy for a possible management reshuffle," he said. LG Group will conduct a management reshuffle sometime this month. Despite such internal views, market analysts consistently say LG could be the "right buyer...

LG Bets Display Future on Paju Cluster LG Display, the world’s second-largest flat-panel maker, runs two manufacturing factories in its liquid-crystal display (LCD) cluster in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, including an eighth-generation (8G) line, which was the result of a 9-trillion-won investment. / Korea Times By Kim Yoo-chul Staff Reporter PAJU, Gyeonggi Province - South Korean conglomerate LG Group relies on consumer electronics products and high-tech components as its bread and butter. And the group's liquid-crystal display (LCD) manufacturing cluster here is now emerging as the heart of its future business strategies. LG plans to invest around 8 trillion won (about $6.9 billion) through 2018 in its Paju complex, which is providing the manufacturing engine for affiliates LG Display, LG Chem and LG Innotek. LG Display, the world's second-largest flat-panel maker, is using its Paju factories to produce LCD panels for televisions, mobile phones and other devices. LG Chem, the cou...

LG Electronics has acquired third-party certification for its solar cell testing facility from TUV Rheinland, a German company involved in technical, safety and certification services. The South Korean company has been investing heavily in the solar cell business over the past five years, looking to invest 220 billion won (about $185 million) to complete two solar cell production lines by the end of 2010. LG claims to be the world's first company to get third-party certification for a solar cell testing facility. The certification will help reduce the time and money spent on safety testing and the certification of solar cell products, the process of which is currently handled by independent organizations. ``When relying on independent product safety organizations, the process takes about a year and costs several tens of millions of won for each product. Gaining certification will cut the time to about six months and allow us to save about 3 billion won annually,'' said an L...

Focussing its research capabilities on the thin-film sector, LG Display is looking to the future of solar energy with its recent investment of 50 billion won ($40 million) in a pilot line and testing facility for solar cells. The pilot line will be built in LG’s Paju display complex in Korea later this year, while an outdoor test power generation facility will also be constructed at the site. The pilot line will enable the testing and research of thin-film solar cell efficiencies, with the company aiming to achieve an increase in the current energy conversion efficiency rate of 8% to 12% by 2010. Commercialization, planned for 2012, will occur when the research facility has raised the cells’ efficiency to 14%, enabling the manufacturing cost to be lowered to less than US$1 per watt. LG Display’s target market in this phase will be commercial applications buildings and public displays, graduating to solar cells for mobile displays, automobiles, and eventually to supplying cells for suc...