Kyocera Corporation (President: Tetsuo Kuba) announced that it is supplying the company’s multicrystalline silicon solar modules for a 1-megawatt (MW) installation at Hokkaido Electric Power Co., Inc.’s new solar power plant (Date City, Hokkaido Prefecture) through Kyocera Solar Corporation, Kyocera’s wholly-owned subsidiary in charge of Japan sales of solar power generating systems. Construction of the facility started this month and is planned to be completed in June 2011.
When completed, the installation will provide enough electricity for roughly 300 households by generating 1,000MWh of electricity and off-setting about 500 tons of CO2 emissions each year.
Over the years Kyocera has earned a solid reputation as a supplier of large-scale installations by providing high-quality, high-performance solar products in a stable supply.
Kyocera boasts the largest market share in Japan of public and industrial solar power installations. In 2005, Kyocera was one of the first companies in Japan to provide modules for a large-scale installation with a 1.2MW system for the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Bureau of Waterworks. Kyocera has also provided modules for other installations at government buildings, factories and businesses, schools, and various other locations throughout Japan.
Outside of its own domestic market, Kyocera has notably supplied more than 50MW of modules for three large-scale power plants in Spain, and 6MW to a solar power generating facility in Thailand — one of Southeast Asia’s largest solar installations to date.
Presently, power companies across Japan have planned to build roughly 30 large-scale solar power plants with a total of 140MW of power output by 2020, with estimations that the adoption of large-scale solar power plants will continue to increase. In addition to Hokkaido Electric Power Co. Inc., Kyocera is supplying its solar modules for large-scale solar power plants to be constructed by Tokyo Electric Power Company (13MW), Kyushu Electric Power Co., Inc. (3MW), and Shikoku Electric Power Co., Inc. (1.7MW).
In recent years global demand in the solar market has been increasing. In Japan, the residential and industrial solar markets have 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., government subsidies and Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) programs* are spurring demand. In Europe, despite a decrease in feed-in-tariff rates in Germany in July, the German market is still experiencing high-growth, and countries like France and Italy are emerging and are expected to help drive global demand. Furthermore, growth of the solar market is expected in India, Thailand and other Asian countries.
Kyocera first started research and development of solar energy technology in 1975, and has continued on from that point in the pursuit of thoroughly enhancing quality. Following the trend for public and industrial solar installations, Kyocera hopes to apply its many years of experience and know-how in the solar industry to supply high-performance modules that can help to contribute to the prevention of global warming.