Kyocera opens first solar module production facility in Europe

Kyocera Corporation with first European solar module production

29 August 2004

The Japanese technology corporation Kyocera will open its European production facility for solar modules in the Czech Republic. Kyocera, one of the largest manufacturers of solar cells and solar modules world-wide, will start production in the northern Czech city of Kadan from April, 2005.

Kyocera will invest some 183 million Czech crowns (5.8 million Euros) in the new production facility. The Czech plant will cre-ate around 80 new jobs firstly and up to 150, according to the company. Kyocera has set a target production capacity at the plant of 24MWp in the first year and expands to 60MWp in a couple of years. With the development of this new solar mod-ule production facility, the company aims to meet the growing demand for alternative energy sources, generated as a result of growing environmental awareness and the fulfilment of the Kyoto Protocol.
“We believe that energy and environmental aspects go hand in hand. Kyocera’s achievements in research and development have produced high-performance ceramics which are recog-nised throughout the world today as an ecologically beneficial material,” says Isao Ike Yukawa, Managing Director of the So-lar Energy Division of Kyocera Corporation. “These ceramic materials enable us to manufacture components and accesso-ries for environmental applications such as solar energy pro-duction, for example,” he adds.
Mitsuru Imanaka, President of Kyocera Fineceramics GmbH com-mented that by creating a solar module assembly facility in Europe, Kyocera will be able to globally create four poles of production sites and can respond ideally to the local market’s needs. “The modules fitting to the European market can now be developed locally which corresponds to our goal to strengthen the local support,” he stated.
The new solar production plant is the Japanese corporation’s second facility in the Czech Republic. In 1992 the company opened a branch of its American subsidiary AVX - AVX Czech Republic - in Lanškroun. AVX is one of the leading suppliers of electronic components. In the Czech Republic the company manufactures condensers and plug connectors.