Filed under: Emerging Technologies, Solar, Mitsubishi
Mitsubishi boosts output of solar cells
We've written before about Honda's production of solar cells, but did you know that Mitsubishi actually ranks as the world's sixth-largest manufacturer of PV cells? Currently, Mitsubishi Electric cranks out about 120 megawatts worth of solar cells a year, although they have the capacity for 150 megawatts. They plan to increase production to 230 annual megawatts by April of 2009. Solar cells are a hot commodity these days as the power industry, just like the automotive industry, is in the process of "greening" their image. In fact, Mitsubishi believes that the worldwide demand for solar cells could quadruple to 10,000 megawatts as early as 2010. If demand remains high, Mitsubishi Electric could increase its output to 500 megawatts by 2012. 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
KarenRei 12:30PM (3/19/2008)
Kudos to them. Supply is already severely outpaced by demand, and it's only going to get worse as CIGS cells start pushing down the cost. Any new production coming online is good production.
A really, really big application for solar that I see as increasingly likely is the third world. In places without an electric grid and where fuel supplies can be unreliable, it'd be far cheaper to have each village or town have its own solar farm than to build all of that infrastructure. Even with expensive solar cells (let alone cheap ones like CIGS)
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BlackbirdHighway 1:26PM (3/19/2008)
In my state the incentives are weak. I will probably put up solar panels in the next year or two, but that means I will take a big financial hit in doing so. The price for solar needs to drop by about 50% to make the economics work for me.
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eddy 2:22PM (3/19/2008)
Not very surprising.
Mitsubishi is not a simple automotive company but the greatest Keiretsu/Zaibatsu in Japan. It is a company (or a couple of companies with the same brand) that makes evrything.
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