Overall, the Japanese electronics company will add an extra 150 MW of PV module capacity to its Shimane and Shiga production lines, annually. Production of the extra capacity is expected to start next March.
A capital investment of 9.5 billion yen ($79.3 million) has been calculated for the expansion. Upon completion, it will take Panasonics total global PV module production to over 1GW, across its three manufacturing facilities in Japan, and one in Malaysia. The aim is to expand the penetration of Panasonics Smart Home Energy Management Systems.
In a statement released, the company said it expects to see continued "strong demand" in Japans residential and non-residential solar rooftop markets, supported by the government. "In other Asian countries, as well as Europe and the United States, the residential rooftop markets are also expected to remain solid," it added.
Q1 records strong PV sales
While the Panasonic Corporation recorded a slight Y/Y consolidated group sales loss in Q1 2015 around $64.5 billion, down from around $64.7 billion in Q1 2014, it noted that sales of its residential PV systems were "strong". It attributed its 3% eco solutions segment profit increase, from around $769.6 million to $796.3 million, to a rise in sales of the systems.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.