TOKYO, March 27 (UPI) -- Tokyo-based Sharp Corp. announced a new thin-film solar cell plant.
The firm said it has made a capital investment of more than $719 million to build the plant in Sakai, Osaka prefecture. The plant will be capable of boosting Sharp's annual production up to a scale of 1 gigawatt per year.
Production is set to begin in March 2010 with a 480 megawatt initial production capacity for solar cells, and combined with the 160 megawatt capacity of the Katsuragi Plant, Nara prefecture, Sharp hopes to hit 1 gigawatt by April 2010.
The plant is viable, almost necessary, as the market for solar cells continues its rapid expansion. More and more large-scale solar power generation systems are being developed and so more panels are needed.
Sharp said its Sakai Plant will be jointly developed with Tokyo Electron Limited and the firm hopes to considerably improve production efficiency.
