Honda Motor Co. established a subsidiary company, Honda Soltec Co., to enter the solar market, the automaker announced on December 1, 2006. Honda Soltec will manufacture and sell Honda's next-generation solar cells.

Honda's solar cells, developed by Honda Engineering Co., are based on thin-film technology that employs a compound made of copper, indium, gallium and selenium (CIGS). Honda says that its CIGS solar cells can reduce energy consumption in the production process by about 50 percent when compared to conventional crystalline silicon solar cells.

A new plant, which has been under construction on the site of Honda's Kumamoto Factory since late September 2006, will come online in fall 2007, with an annual production capacity of 27.5 megawatts. Prior to the start-up of the new plant, Honda Soltec will begin selling CIGS thin-film solar cells manufactured by Honda Engineering in limited areas in March 2007. After mass production begins at the new plant in Kumamoto in fall 2007, Honda Soltec will expand sales throughout Japan.

http://world.honda.com/news/2006/c061201HondaSoltec/
- Honda Engineering Develops Next-Generation Thin Film Solar Cell (Related JFS article)
http://www.japanfs.org/db/61-e

Posted: 2007/03/11 11:14:03 PM
Japanese version

TAG Energy , Manufacturing industry