Sanyo starts 200MW solar cell plant in Osaka

Osaka, Japan-based Sanyo Electric (OTC:SANYY) said it planned to start construction today on a solar cell production line in western Japan with a capacity of up to 200 megawatts.

Sanyo estimated that construction and other investments in the plant could exceed ¥10 billion ($108.5 million), with an estimated completion date of October 2010. The plant is being built inside the grounds of the company's Nishikinohama factory in Kaizuka City, Osaka.

Sanyo said the line will scale production up to 200 MW depending on market demand.

Sanyo has developed a heterojunction solar cell with an intrinsic thin layer, referred to as the HIT line, to improve efficiency in converting sunlight to electricity.

Sanyo's two existing HIT solar cell lines—the Nishikinohama plant in Osaka and the Shimane plant in Unnan City, Shimane Prefecture—have a combined production capacity of 340 MW.

The company expects to reach 600 MW of production capacity by March 2011 (the end of its 2010 fiscal year) with the addition of the 200 MW line and also 60 MW of production equipment to the existing Shimane plant. The company plans to reach 2 GW of production of HIT solar cells by 2020.

The new production line was driven by Sanyo's expectation that the market for solar cells will grow in Japan, Europe and the U.S. Japan recently revived its residential solar subsidy, while the U.S. extended solar subsidies for eight years (see Solar takes stock after tax-credit battle and China solar industry faces rising silicon cost).

Sanyo is Japan's largest solar cell producer behind Sharp Solar, which had about 710 MW of production capacity last year and plans to reach 1.7 GW by 2010. Sanyo's strength in the solar and battery businesses has been cited as one of the reasons Panasonic (NYSE:PC) is in the process of acquiring it (see Nine clean technology predictions for 2009).

Sanyo said earlier this month it planned to cut 1,200 of its nearly 100,000 employees thanks to a ¥14.3 billion loss in the third quarter. The company cited declining sales and a strong yen.

In January, Sanyo created a joint venture with Nippon Oil, called Sanyo Eneos Solar, to target the thin-film solar market. The companies have also collaborated on a fuel cell joint venture (see Sanyo, Nippon Oil setting up fuel cell venture).

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