Japan's Kaneka plans $1.1 bln solar capex - Nikkei
TOKYO, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Japan's Kaneka Corp (4118.T) plans to spend more than $1.1 billion by 2015 to boost its solar cell production capacity 14-fold to meet growing demand, the Nikkei business daily said on Sunday.
As part of the expansion plan, the chemicals maker will build a $224-million solar cell plant in Europe by 2011, the newspaper said.
Demand for solar cells, which convert solar energy into electricity, is expanding rapidly due to concerns over climate change.
The new plant, which makes thin-film solar cells, will have an annual production capacity of 200,000 kilowatts, the paper said.
Thin-film solar cells use one-hundredth of the silicon needed in conventional solar cells, cutting production costs, although their conversion rates are lower.
Kaneka has not decided on the specific location of the European plant, but it is considering building it at its manufacturing complex in Belgium, the Nikkei said.
Kaneka, which competes with larger rivals such as Germany's Q-Cells (QCEG.DE) and Japan's Sharp Corp (6753.T), plans to bring its overall capacity to 1 million kilowatts a year by 2015, up from 70,000 kilowatts now, spending an estimated 100 billion yen ($1.12 billion) or more, the newspaper said. (Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)
