JAPAN: December 17, 2007


TOKYO - Sharp Corp will spend close to 100 billion yen (US$882.9 million) to build the world's largest solar cell factory in Japan, Chairman Katsuhiko Machida was quoted by the Nikkei business daily as saying.


The plant will be built next to Sharp's LCD panel factory currently under construction in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture.

It will produce thin-film solar cells, which use less silicon than conventional cells, starting in fiscal 2009, the Nikkei said in its Saturday edition.

The factory is expected to have a production capacity of 1,000 megawatts per year, the largest in the world. The Osaka-based company has an annual output capacity of 710 megawatts.

Sharp first announced plans to build the plant back in July, but had not outlined the investment amount. (US$1=113.26 Yen) (Reporting by Naomi Tajitsu, editing by Jacqueline Wong)


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