Mitsubishi Electric to ramp up PV solar cell production

Mitsubishi Electric has completed construction of a new photovoltaic (PV) solar cell production facility at its Nakatsugawa Works Iida Factory in Nagano Prefecture. By March 2011, the company will raise its annual PV cell/module production capacity by 50 megawatts (MW) to 270MW, and over the time it plans to reach an annual capacity of 600MW at an early stage.

Mitsubishi is increasing its production capacity due to rising demand of solar panel both globally and in Japan. The global solar PV market is expected to grow from 5,550MW in fiscal 2009 (April 2008 - March 2009) to approximately 8,000MW in fiscal 2012 (April 2011 - March 2012). The world is going for solar energy with high priority.

Mitsubishi plans to manufacture monocrystalline silicon PV cells, and start production by March 2011. Mitsubishi Electric lead among solar semiconductor manufacturers in producing high efficiency solar cells. It has developed solar cell with light to electric conversion efficiency of 19.3% in a 150mm x 150mm polycrystalline silicon PV cell and the company plans to develop highly efficient monocrystalline silicon PV cells.

Mitsubishi also plans to raise its monthly solar inverter production capacity at its Nakatsugawa Works by 50% from 4,000 units to 6,000 units in May 2010.