Japanese solar power groups lift capacity
Japanese solar-panel manufacturers are expanding capacity in spite of concerns about oversupply in the sector, as they eye long-term growth in demand for renewable energy.

• [Showa Shell] in which Royal Dutch Shell owns a one-third stake, is spending $1bn to convert a former Hitachi plasma-screen television factory into one of the largest solar-panel plants in the world, capable of producing 900 megawatts’ worth of thin-film photovoltaic cells a year. (...) [Showa Shell's president] Mr Kameda said Showa Shell hoped to sell 70 per cent of its output outside Japan under a new global brand launched on Monday called Solar Frontier. The company is opening two overseas offices, in California and Munich, to market its technology to residential and commercial buyers.
• Mitsubishi, which last month completed a 24,000 square metre panel factory in northern Japan, said it hoped to produce 600 megawatts’ worth of photovoltaic cells by the financial year March 2012, up from 220 megawatts.
• Toshiba, which makes residential solar-power systems with panels supplied by third-party manufacturers, said it was aiming to take 10 per cent of the Japanese domestic market by the year to March 2013. (...)
• Sharp, currently the biggest producer, expects to open a new plant this year that will give it more than 1 gigawatt of thin-film capacity. Sanyo and Kyocera are also investing heavily in the technology.