KYOCERA Announces Construction of New Solar Cell Manufacturing Plant

Increasing product scale to 650MW per year by March 2012

17 November 2008

Kyoto, Japan/Neuss, Germany –Kyocera Corporation (President: Makoto Kawamura) (NYSE:KYO) (TOKYO: 6971) announced today the construction of a new large-scale solar cell manufacturing facility. The new plant — located in Yasu City, Shiga Prefecture — will be the largest of the Kyocera Group’s Japan-based solar cell manufacturing facilities.

Construction of the plant will start in early 2009, with the facility to be completed within the year so that production can begin in spring of 2010. The new plant, along with the preexisting Yokaichi Plant, will become the central base for Kyocera solar cell manufacturing. Kyocera plans to double annual production from this year’s volume of 300MW. By March 2012, the two plants will have a combined annual manufacturing output of solar cells capable of producing 650MW. The new plant will manufacture the Back Contact Cell, which was developed in October 2006, achieving an 18.5% energy conversion efficiency rate, the world’s highest among multicrystaline solar cells.
In order to effectively correspond to the expected growth in demand for solar energy Kyocera possesses a vertically integrated production process to cast silicon raw materials, manufacture solar cells and assemble solar modules. “Kyocera’s strength lies in the technology developed over more than 30 years in the market to produce high-quality, long-lasting, reliable products with high level solar conversion efficiency rates. Utilizing these strengths Kyocera aims to further expand its solar business,” stated Tatsumi Maeda, senior managing executive officer of Kyocera Corporation and General Manager of Corporate Solar Energy Group.
Kyocera has already established local production and supply systems for solar modules in Japan, Europe, the United States and China - the four largest markets in the world - to respond to a rapid rise in demand in these areas. Along with the phased increase of solar cell production, the manufacturing capability of the four assembly plants in the Czech Republic, Mexico, China and Japan will be enhanced.
Currently, Europe is experiencing rapid growth in demand for solar power generating systems, due to abundant governmental subsidy programs and Feed-in-Tariffs. In particular, recently there have been large-size solar power system installations of more than 1 MW in Germany and Spain.
In Europe, Kyocera Solar Europe s.r.o. produces solar modules corresponding to the market’s needs such as the G-Frame, a high pressure resistance solar module.
“By utilizing solar energy more and more people can make positive contributions to the environment” says Mitsuru Imanaka, the president of Kyocera Fineceramic GmbH, the operating base of Kyocera’s solar energy business in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. “With over 30 years of experience we continue to strive to make solar power generating systems accessible by supplying products which meet the market’s needs.”