Kyocera to Mass Produce World’s Most Efficient Solar Cells - News Item

Kyocera Corporation is pleased to announce the successful development of a new multicrystal silicon solar module to be mass produced for the general market, offering the world’s best module conversion efficiency at 15.7%. Preparations for commercial-scale production are scheduled to start in September this year with a view to the product being made available both domestically and overseas from next financial year.

Prior to the development of this module, Kyocera had already achieved the world’s best cell conversion efficiency at 17.7% for multicrystal silicon solar cells for the general market.

The new-model, high-efficiency cells that are now produced using the processes developed through these previous successes will be used in solar module applications. Kyocera will continue to work on producing even more efficient and higher added-value modules (for market release), such as those to go into commercial production next year, in order to secure the leading position in the market.

For over twenty years, Kyocera has been looking into the potential of multicrystal silicon solar cells/modules in our solar energy business, and has continued to work on creating a market for such products. This new product innovation can be attributed to our fully-integrated production system, which we are committed to maintaining, and our comprehensive technology development capabilities right through from wafer quality control to our cell and module production processes.

Posted August 3^rd, 2004