The Management Commission of Dali High-tech Industry Development Zone has signed with Stream High-Tech Group Company on bringing a solar amorphous silicon film and photoelectricity project to Dali in Yunnan Province.

As the first high-tech project at such an international advanced level to be initiated in Yunnan Province as part of the Bonn Project of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the new solar amorphous silicon project will involve a total investment of about US$500 million and is expected to achieve about US$240 million in sales revenue each year upon completion.

The local government says that the project will be the largest of its kind in Asia.

Compared with polycrystalline silicon whose main ingredient is the solar class silicon whose price keeps soaring, amorphous silicon is a much cheaper material whose main ingredient is glass. Because of this, it is estimated that amorphous silicon thin films will grow more rapidly than polycrystalline silicon thin films and have an equal market share with the latter in Chinese domestic market by 2010.

The full name of the Bonn Project is Chinese Traditional Medical Culture European Exchange Center Project.