Kyocera (NYSE: KYO) announced Thursday that it has begun operations at its first U.S. solar manufacturing facility in San Diego, California.
The new solar manufacturing line has an initial production target of 30
megawatts (MW) per year of solar
modules ranging from 210 watts to the company’s newest 235-watt
modules.
Tatsumi Maeda, vice president and general manager of Kyocera
Corporation’s Solar Energy Group, said the modules will meet any ‘Buy
American’ provisions that may be enacted for government-supported
renewable energy projects.
The U.S. production line is the latest step towards Kyocera’s global production target of 1,000 MW (one gigawatt) of solar cells per year by March 2013--enough to supply 3.5-kilowatt solar systems for
about 285,000 homes each year.
Solar energy has become Kyocera’s fastest-growing business globally. In addition to the new production operations in San Diego, Kyocera currently has solar module production facilities in Japan, China, the Czech Republic and Mexico.
Kyocera established its U.S. operations in 1969, and in 1971 it became the first Japan-based corporation with manufacturing operations in California. Kyocera Group companies currently employ approximately 4,000 people in the United States.
