Mar 29 2010
Sharp Corporation has commenced manufacturing at its new thin-film solar cell plant on 29th March 2010. The plant is located in Sakai City, Osaka Prefecture, Japan.
By utilizing 1,000 x 1,400 mm size glass substrates, the company will be manufacturing thin-film solar cells. The structure of thin-film solar cells comprise thin silicon layers accumulated on a glass substrate, which enables a substantial reduction of silicon used. When compared to amount of silicon used in crystalline solar cells, these thin-film solar cells use only one hundredth of the amount. In addition, the cost of production is also low due to simpler production processes. The demand has risen steadily for thin-film solar cells across the world due to this reason, particularly from large-scale photovoltaic power plant developers.
The Sakai thin-film solar cell production plant will act as a model plant for all Sharp’s thin-film solar cell plants throughout the world. To meet the increasing global demand for solar cells, Sharp will continue to strengthen its know-how and proprietary production technology.