Sharp Signs Agreement with Italian Power Company Enel for Joint Venture in Solar Power Generation Business and Production of Thin-Film Solar Cells
Sharp and Italy's largest power company, Enel SpA (Enel), agreed to establish a joint venture in the spring of 2009 to operate as an independent power producer (IPP*). As such, they will develop a number of solar power plants with a total capacity of 189 MW by the end of 2012.
The solar power plants will be set up mainly in southern Italy and will utilize thin-film solar cells. Sharp and Enel are looking into expanding their IPP business to cover countries of the Mediterranean region other than Italy in the future.
Regarding the production of thin-film solar cells, plans call for Sharp, Enel, and a third European manufacturing company to construct a thin-film solar cell plant in Italy with the potential to expand annual production capacity to around 1 GW in the future. The initial phase of development will put in place a production system having an annual capacity of 480 MW, with the aim of starting operations around the middle of 2010.
- * An Independent Power Producer (IPP) owns facilities to generate electric power for sale to utilities and end users.