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Nippon Sheet: solar panel parts business gives good results

With demand for solar power soaring worldwide, Nippon Sheet Glass Co. is getting good results from the production and sales of solar panel parts, thanks to the worldwide increase in demand of solar po…

With demand for solar power soaring worldwide, Nippon Sheet Glass Co. is getting good results from the production and sales of solar panel parts, thanks to the worldwide increase in demand of solar power to counter global warming. According to officials from Nippon, the company foresees an annual growth of about 15% in speciality glass used to protect the surface of solar cells over the next few years. The Japanese company now gets about 5% of its total sales from solar cell operations, even if that figure could reach more than 10% for the current fiscal year, due to decreasing sales of automotive and construction-use glass amid the economic slowdown. The firm has about 70% of the global components market for thin-film solar cells, which are cheaper than crystalline silicon cells, the current standard, because they requires less silicon. Nippon Sheet Glass therefore expects demand for thin-film cells and their components to increase in coming years. Demand for solar energy is strong in Europe, especially Germany and Spain, and growth is expected to continue thanks to the construction of large-scale solar power generation plants, encouraged by feed-in tariff government subsidy systems. On the other hand, no sharp increase in demand is expected in the US unless there are sweeping measures by the government, Richard Altman, president of the North American operation of Pilkington, a Nippon Sheet Glass subsidiary, said.

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