Nippon Oil gears up as solar power provider

Japans Nippon Oil Corp. is gearing up its sales of solar power generation systems both for household use, as well as next-generation solar cells, to establish the company as a provider of environmentally friendly energy sources. The companys acquisition this spring of a 15% equity stake in Space Energy is in support of these efforts. The major Japanese maker of solar-cell silicon wafers is close to completing the construction of an additional plant in Nagano Prefecture that will quadruple its output capacity to eight million units per month. Nippon Oil also is working on cutting-edge solar cells for commercialization in 2015, with a targeted photovoltaic conversion efficiency of 10% or more. Another product, the organic thin-film solar cell is set for commercialization by 2020. In addition, Nippon Oil has formed an alliance in April with the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Tokyo for joint research to develop solar cells with ultra-high photovoltaic efficiency, including a quantum-dot type and an organic-inorganic hybrid type. (September 4, 2008)