NEW YORK (Reuters) – The booming solar energy sector is rapidlyspreading to untapped markets, as technology for turning sunlight intopower improves, making the business a key part of Sharp Electronics’future growth strategy, a Sharp Corp executive said on Wednesday.
With current production capacity of about 710 megawatts of solarcells, Sharp is the world’s leading solar cell maker, and the companyhas said that business, along with LCD televisions, would be its mainfocus in the coming years.
Sharp’s push comes even as the solar market splinters into home,commercial and utility-scale projects that use a divergent group ofmaterials and technologies to build the environmentally-friendlyelectricity source.
"We feel that our strength is we can build many products," RonKenedi, vice president for Sharp’s Solar Energy Solutions Group, toldReuters.
"We are very comfortable in that role of building different products for different markets," he said.
Demand from companies for rooftop solar panels is surging, as thosebusinesses seek to bolster their green credentials while meeting atleast a portion of their power needs.
Sharp’s panels were chosen by Google for a project that willeventually reach 1.6 megawatts in capacity at the Internet company’sMountain View, California headquarters.
Those types of projects have replaced the residential rooftop market as the leading market driver, Kenedi said.
"That’s becoming the most vibrant market these days," he said.
Although most of its production uses silicon as the key componentinside its photovoltaic cells to produce electricity from sunlight,Sharp said in November it planned to raise its output capacity forthin-film solar cells to 160 megawatts per year, up from 15 MW, to meetgrowing demand in Europe.
Though typically less efficient than silicon-based solar cells, manyindustry experts forecast that thin-film solar may be the best growthtechnology in the sector because it can be built into other materialsand is more flexible than silicon panels.
Sharp is also developing a thin-film solar cell factory at a plantin Sakai City, Osaka that will ultimately produce 1 gigawatt of cellsper year. Solar cell production at that plant, which will also produceLCD televisions, will begin in 2010.
RIDING THE RETAIL METER
Despite its different products, Sharp’s focus will for now remain inselling solar systems to power users rather than wholesale providers.
"Working on the other side of the meter is very hard … we’re morecomfortable working on the retail side of the meter," Kenedi said.
But as the photovoltaic technology improves, Sharp, like others inthe solar sector, will likely push to develop utility-scale projects aswell.
At the moment, tightness in supplies of silicon have limited thegrowth of worldwide solar production, but new supplies of silicon areexpected to begin reaching the market in the second half of 2008.
"As the silicon shortage eases up, we’re going to have the capacity to develop all these markets," he said.
Still, Kenedi declined to forecast when Sharp would reach "gridparity" or the price at which its cells were competitive with otherelectricity sources.
"The solar field is strewn with bones of people who predicted when we would hit grid parity," he said.
(By Matt Daily; Editing by Andre Grenon)
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