Kyocera Corporation (NYSE:KYO) announced that it will begin full-scale production at its new Yasu solar cell manufacturing facility in Yasu City, Shiga Prefecture, Japan.
The new plant was completed in March of this year and has already finished production line testing. It is the largest of the company’s domestic manufacturing facilities, and will be producing the company’s multicrystalline silicon solar cells with a 16.9% energy conversion efficiency.
In tandem with the company’s existing Shiga Yohkaichi Plant (Japan), the new plant will expand the company’s
annual production to 600 megawatts (MW) this fiscal year–an increase of 50% from last year. Kyocera’s goal is to reach 1 gigawatt (GW) of annual capacity by March 2013.
In Japan, the residential-use solar market has been expanding due to the reintroduction last year of government subsidies and a doubling in the purchase price for surplus solar-generated power. In the U.S., governmental subsidies and Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) programs are spurring demand, and future growth of the market is expected. In Europe, despite a decrease in feed-in-tariff rates in Germany in July, the German market is still experiencing high-growth. In addition, countries like France and Italy are emerging and are expected to help drive global demand.
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