While not hitting the headlines as often as companies such as Suntech, Sharp and Solarfun; Kyocera Corporation is certainly no slouch in the solar industry. Kyocera started its solar energy business in the wake of the first oil crisis in 1973, has been developing and advancing solar energy technology since 1975.
Kyocera’s President: Tetsuo Kuba yesterday announced the company recently supplied approximately 190,000 Kyocera solar panels to two new solar farms in Spain constructed by renewable energy firm Avanzalia.
Combined, the panels have an output of approximately 40 megawatts (MW). The power generated from these two solar farms provides enough electricity for approximately 17,700 average households in Spain, with the solar modules covering a total area of 338,581m².
The first plant, Planta Solar de Dulcinea, has a total output of 31.8MW and covers an area of 230,324m². 140,426 Kyocera solar panels were used in its construction. Planta Solar de Dulcinea will realise a carbon dioxide reduction of over 15,000 tons a year.
The second, smaller plant; Planta Solar de Don Quijote, has a total output of 15.5MW and has enough capacity to supply 5,741 homes. The 50,000 Kyocera solar panels will reduce carbon emissions by approximately 7,222 tons annually.
Looking ahead, in order to construct the infrastructure to support targets of producing 650MW/year of solar cells by March 2012, Kyocera will commence operations of a new solar cell production plant in Japan in spring of 2010 and will continue to expand production capability at its 4 regional solar module assembly plants located in Japan, Czech Republic, Mexico and China.
