Sharp sees start of solar recovery in 2010

ANAHEIM, California (Reuters) - The solar power industry will start to recover in 2010, an executive with Sharp Corp told Reuters on Tuesday, saying U.S. stimulus funds, work on government projects and new financing would help the industry.

"I call it a warming up," Ron Kenedi, vice president of Sharp Solar Energy Solutions Group, said in an interview at the Solar Power International conference being held in Anaheim, California, this week.

Kenedi said stimulus funds as well as work on government projects are bright spots in the industry's recovery as well as new ways of financing projects.

"New financing is coming in," Kenedi said. "A vacuum gets filled."

Kenedi said that Sharp, which has headquarters in Japan, is moving back to the 30 to 40 percent growth rate that the solar industry had enjoyed until financing for new projects dried up during the financial crisis in 2008 and a global glut of panels sent prices falling.

The fall in panel prices that has hampered companies' profits has hit a "plateau," Kenedi said, noting prices of solar panels have tumbled about 35 percent over the last seven months.

"I don't see that there is going to be a large a decline in prices over the next six months. I think we're pretty much at a plateau," Kenedi said.

Sharp expects to increase its market share across solar segments, from small residential projects to large utility-scale projects.

In California, Sharp holds about 18 percent of the market share, according to data compiled by the state's solar initiative.

Kenedi said he expects Sharp to have a larger market share in utility scale projects, where the company is targeting its new thin film solar cells.

The lower cost of thin film is seen by Sharp and competitors as the best way to build utility projects because they are cheaper to produce than traditional silicon-based solar panels. U.S.-based First Solar dominates the thin film solar market, but Sharp aims to put as much thin film on the market as its silicon-based products.

"Our plan is to have two powerful weapons and of equal size," Kenedi said.

Sharp will ramp up production at a new thin film plant in Sakai City in Osaka in March 2010, starting at 480 megawatts and growing to 1 gigawatt annually.

(Reporting by Laura Isensee; Editing by Richard Chang)