Kyocera to spend $527 mln on solar power - media

TOKYO, Sept 18 (Reuters) - Japan's Kyocera Corp (6971.T), the world's No.4 player in the solar power business, will invest 55 billion yen ($527 million) in the next four years to double its capacity to make solar power systems, the Nikkei business daily reported on Thursday.

The paper said Kyocera aimed to better compete with rivals, including Sharp Corp (6753.T), Sanyo Electric (6764.T), and Mitsubishi Electric Corp (6503.T) that were aggressively investing to boost capacity to meet growing demand.

Kyocera officials were not immediately available for comment. Kyocera planned to have an output capacity of 650,000 kilowatts by March 2012 by investing 45 billion yen to raise production of solar cells at its plant in Shiga Prefecture, western Japan, the paper said.

It would spend the other 10 billion yen to beef up assembly facilities in places such as China and the Czech Republic, and it may also set up another factory, the paper said. (Reporting by Sachi Izumi; Editing by Rodney Joyce)