Panasonic To Build New Solar Manufacturing Base In Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 25 (Bernama) -- Panasonic Corporation on Friday announced its plan to establish a company in Malaysia that will serve as its new solar manufacturing base. Panasonic Energy Malaysia Sdn Bhd, to be established next month, will operate a vertically-integrated solar manufacturing facility, producing wafers to cells and modules. Panasonic said in a statement on Friday that it will invest 45 billion yen (100 yen = RM4.12) in the facility to be located at the Kulim Hi-Tech Park, in northern state of Kedah. The factory will start operations in December 2012 with an annual production capacity of 300 MW. It said with environmental awareness increasing globally and the introduction of subsidy systems and Feed-in Tariff schemes in Japan as well as other countries, the solar cell market is predicted to grow further. Robust demand is expected particularly in the residential sector, the main target of the Panasonic HIT (Heterojunction with Intrinsic Thin-layer) solar modules, it added. The new factory which will have about 1,500 employees, will not only help Panasonic meet this growing demand, but also strengthen the HIT module’s cost-competitiveness with the vertically-integrated production. Panasonic will sell its solar modules as an individual product as well as part of a system combined with storage batteries. Further, as part of the comprehensive solutions business, which is built on capacities brought together across its group of companies, Panasonic will accelerate its solar business development globally. -- BERNAMA Malaysia