Eager not to lose its long-held position at the leading edge of solar-cell technology to foreign competitors, Japan is promoting the further development of the technology, which is regarded as one of the strategically important industries of the future.
“We can already feel the effects. Sales are increasing,” said Tetsuhiro Maeda, vice-president and general manager of the solar division of Sanyo Electric Co.
The company, which is soon to merge with electronics giant Panasonic Corp, hopes to recover market share lost in recent years and is to a large extent pinning its expectations on the German market.
“Both the government and we, the companies, are working hard so that Japan gains ground in the solar energy field again,” Maeda said.
After the oil crisis in the 1970s, Japan was among the first countries to promote the use of solar energy for producing hot water and electricity, turning the Land of the Rising Sun into the world’s largest producer of solar cells in the process.
GIVING IN
However, in recent years, Japan’s government has given into the demands of electricity providers opposed to being required to buy solar-generated electricity at higher-than-market prices. When subsidies were scrapped in 2005, the market tanked.
Suddenly, Japan lost ground to the competition abroad, with the German Q-Cells group replacing Japan’s Sharp Corp as global market leader for solar cells.
Sanyo suffered the same fate. While holding seventh position in 2007 in terms of solar cell production with a market share of 4.4 percent, Sanyo’s market share fell to 3 percent and the company’s global ranking dropped several notches to 12th one year later.
Adding to the solar-cell industry’s misery is the global economic downturn, which has hit the country’s entire electronics sector hard. In the business year ended March 31, Sanyo, the world’s largest producer of rechargeable batteries, was in the red.
Net losses for the business year were ¥93.22 billion (US$968 million) following a net profit of ¥28.7 billion the year before.
In the current business year, Sanyo aims to be back in profit again. By focusing on rechargeable batteries and solar energy, the company hopes to make a profit of ¥7 billion.
GERMANY
For the business year beginning next April Sanyo wants to increase its market share in solar cells to 8 percent and raise it to 10 to 15 percent in the subsequent years.
“For us, Germany is the market with the biggest potential,” Maeda said.
The German market is attractive for Japanese companies, as high quality and reliability are appreciated there, he explained.
Sanyo still sees “much space” to expand capacity at its European production site in Hungary, and while it does not plan any further plants in Europe, a factory is being expanded in Mexico.
Both sites are expected to churn out solar cells at full capacity by next year or 2011, Maeda said. By 2014 or 2015, according to the ambitions plans, production is planned to reach more than 1 gigawatt of solar-cell production.
But to reach that goal, further production sites are needed, Maeda said, but stressed that Sanyo was still focused on its core markets in Europe, Japan and North America. China, for the time being, is not central to the company’s strategic considerations.
Even if the Chinese market were to grow this year, it would be unlikely to exceed 100 or 200 megawatts. Moreover, the market is already covered by large Chinese producers.
“We doubt that we can gain a foothold there,” Maeda said, because the Chinese government is subsidizing the domestic market.
Meanwhile, Sanyo is busy cutting costs, increasing further the efficiency of its products and expanding domestic production capacity, by enlarging its biggest Japanese plant, located in Shiga prefecture.
Early next year, the plant will run at its full 100-megawatt production capacity, Maeda said.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
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The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
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