SANYO, Nippon Oil in thin-film solar cell JV

TOKYO, JAPAN: SANYO Electric Co. Ltd. and Nippon Oil Corp. recently announced that they have decided to launch a joint company for the production and sale of thin-film solar panels, to be named SANYO ENEOS Solar Co. Ltd.

With the growing awareness of climate change, realizing a low-carbon society is becoming a common global challenge. In addition, the worldwide economic stagnation triggered by the financial crisis is becoming more severe. To address these problems, the United States has put forward a new proactive policy and a movement to actively introduce clean, unlimited solar energy as an unlimited resource is progressing significantly.

The trend is expected to first involve European countries, and then spread to a global scale. Among all the types of solar products, thin-film solar panels are able to achieve lower costs for large-scale power generation systems with a market that is expected to rapidly expand in the future.

For this joint project, SANYO will draw on its solar cell technologies, based on the technology acquired through the development of the HIT Solar Cell*, which is capable of the world's highest conversion efficiency, as well as its extensive research performed over the last thirty years related to thin-film solar cell technologies.

Nippon Oil will utilize its raw materials technologies, such as petroleum production, acquired through petroleum processing and chemicals manufacturing, and the strong relationships it has established with oil-producing countries in the Middle East, etc., which are expected to become major markets for photovoltaic systems in the future.

The new joint company will integrate the strengths of the two companies and work with the aim of becoming a global leading company in the production of thin-film solar modules, accelerating the commercialization of high-performance, reliable thin-film solar systems, a market segment expected to rapidly grow in the future.

The new joint company will start production and sales at an initial scale of 80MW in Fiscal Year 2010 and gradually increase its production capacity while reviewing and considering the market needs. The goals for the future scope of business are 1GW for annual global production and sales by FY2015 and around 2GW for the annual global production and sales of thin-film solar by FY2020.