News Article
Going green goes big with first tenth-generation LCD and large solar cell plant
Sharp Corporation has announced its decision to start building an LCD plant in Japan at the end of this year.
Sharp Corporation has announced its decision to start building an LCD plant in Japan at the end of this year. Through a combination of first tenth-generation LCD panel production and a large plant for thin-film solar (photovoltaic) cells, Sharp is ensuring its presence in the markets of the future for consumer electronics and renewable energy.The industrial park, covering an area of more than one million square metres, is being developed in Sakai near Osaka, Japan as a manufacturing complex for the 21st century that will help reinforce Sharp's goal of being an "environmentally advanced company" since the corporation opened Kameyama I plant in 2004. The LCD panel plant will be the world's first LCD plant manufacturing mother glasses with a size of 8.7 square metres (2.850 mm x 3.050 mm). These mother glasses will be 60 per cent bigger than the ones being used by Sharp's eighth-generation plant, Kameyama II. From these, e.g., six 60-inch or eight 50-inch LCD panels may be manufactured.The glass coating technology applied here is the same for both the production of LCD panels and thin-film solar cells, which are especially powerful and have a high silicon-saving capacity. Sharp launches mass production of these solar cells with the new plant and is planning a production volume of 1.000 megawatts per year. The industrial park will also have room for suppliers supporting the entire integrated production process as well as further infrastructure, which will provide the advantages of time, energy and cost efficiency. Construction work for the new plants will begin in November this year. The start of production is planned for March 2010.