Kyocera Corp. and Sanyo Electric independently announced plans to significantly increase their production capacities for photovoltaic (PV) cells and both companies announced plans to open new factories.
Kyocera plans to boost the production capacity of its solar cells by about 40% to 100 MW worth of cells a year by the end of 2004 from the current 72 MW.
The move is intended to meet growing demand in Japan and abroad for solar power generation systems, Isao Yukawa, managing director at Kyocera, said.
The company will increase production lines at its factory in Yokaichi, Shiga Prefecture, and set up a joint venture in Tianjin, China, to assemble cells into solar panels. The Chinese venture, which is to start production in October, aims for annual production of 10 MW in 2004.
Earlier, Sayno had announced its plans to double its PV cell production by January 2004. Sanyo will open a new factory in Kaizuka City, Osaka. When the new factory comes on line, the company’s annual PV production will reach 60 MW, with annual production scheduled to double again to 120 MW by January 2005.
Last year, Sanyo began production of its HIT (heterojunction with intrinsic thin layer) PV cells at the Sanyo Energy plant in Mexico.
