AU Optronics Corp (AUO, 友達光電), the nation’s No. 2 LCD panel maker, said yesterday its 8.5--generation factory in the Central Taiwan Science Park (中部科學園區) and a TV module plant in Suzhou, China, had passed the ISO 50001 standard for energy management.
This makes AUO the first manufacturer in the world to obtain ISO 50001 certification, which aims to help companies enhance energy efficiency and make less of an impact on the environment, the company said in a statement.
The ISO 50001 announcement came after AUO on Wednesday secured government approval to purchase a 49 percent stake in Longfei Optoelectronics Co’s (龍飛光電) 8.5G factory in China for US$796 million.
“Being the first manufacturer in the world to receive ISO 50001 certification illustrates the great lengths to which the company has gone to adopt energy--saving green practices, which have now been acknowledged globally,” AUO global manufacturing division vice president Lin Shr-kai (林士凱) said in a statement.
The implementation of ISO 50001 is expected to help AUO achieve 10 percent energy conservation at its 8.5G fab in Central Taiwan Science Park this year.
It will also allow the company to save an estimated 55 million kilowatt hours of electricity and reduce carbon emissions by 35,000 tonnes, which is the equivalent of the afforestation of nine New York City Central Parks, AUO said.
As for the Suzhou TV module plant, the company said it expects to save approximately 5 percent on energy consumption, or an equivalent of about 1.5 million kilowatt hours of electricity.
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