Kyocera to double solar manufacturing

Kyocera Solar (NYSE: KYO), not to be outdone by Japanese rival Sharp (see Sharp doubling solar production capacity in Europe), today announced plans to double its own solar production.

The company says it will expand its annual module manufacturing capacity to 500 megawatts (MW) by the end of March 2011—more than double its current annual capacity of 240MW.

The company says it has secured supply contracts with silicon producers to facilitate the increased production capacity.

“Among the world’s fully integrated suppliers that manage every stage of the process, from casting silicon ingot to engineering and supplying complete solar electric generating systems, our goal is to lead the industry in both quality and quantity,” said Tatsumi Maeda, senior managing executive officer of Kyocera Corp. and general manager of the company’s Corporate Solar Energy Group.

Kyocera plans to invest an estimated ¥30 billion (about $250 million USD) in plants and equipment throughout this network during the expansion.

Kyocera's Tijuana factory, which produces solar modules for the Americas and Australia, will increase capacity from its present 35MW to 150MW. Kyocera Solar Europe is to also increase capacity to 150MW. Kyocera's factory in China is to increase its manufacturing capacity to 90MW and increase its existing production area by 50 percent.

Kyocera's Japanese plants are to similarly expand, especially its Yohkaichi plant, which produces all of the raw solar cells used by the other four production sites for their local assembly into finished solar modules.

The combined output of all Kyocera solar energy manufacturing from 1975 to 2006 totaled approximately 760 megawatts of solar modules.

Solar energy is Kyocera’s fastest growing business.

Most solar photovoltaic manufacturers are expanding capacity as quickly as possible to meet skyrocketing global demand. For several years now, silicon supply has been the bottleneck.

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