PHOTON International The Photovoltaic Magazine

Sharp plans UK PV factory in 2004

Sharp Electronics Corp. will start PV module production in the UK in the second quarter of 2004.

In mid-September, Takashi Tomita, general manager of Sharp's solar systems group, confirmed that the Japanese electronics company, the world's largest PV cell and module producer, plans to set up the module factory near Manchester, where Sharp already has offices.

Tomita declined to give any information about planned production or capacity. But earlier in the year, when Sharp started its search for a site to set up production, a high-ranking source at Sharp told PHOTON International the capacity would probably be between 10 and 20 MW (see PI 4/2003, p. 12). According to another source, however, the capacity could be as high as 30 MW.

This is the second time Sharp has chosen to expand its PV module production outside of Japan. In late 2002, Sharp decided to set up a 20 MW capacity module production factory at an existing Sharp facility in the US state of Tennessee (see 12/2002, p. 22).