Panasonic to build new solar manufacturing base in Malaysia

Panasonic Corporation has announced a new business plan to start a company in Malaysia that will serve as Panasonic’s new solar manufacturing base. 

The new company will have the name Panasonic Energy Malaysia Sdn. Bhd. and will be set up in December 2011. The company will operate a vertically-integrated solar manufacturing facility and the main production of the new business venture will range from wafers to cells and modules.

The new business venture will cost Panasonic 45 billion yen. The company is expected to start operating in December 2012 with an annual production capacity of 300 MW.

This move comes in time with environmental awareness increasing globally and introduction of subsidy systems and Feed-in Tariff schemes in Japan as well as other countries. In addition the solar cell market is predicted to grow further with robust demand is expected especially in the residential sector, which is the main target of the Panasonic HIT (Heterojunction with Intrinsic Thin-layer) solar modules. The new factory, to be built in the Kulim Hi-Tech Park in Kedah, will not only help Panasonic meet this growing demand, but also strengthen the HIT module’s cost-competitiveness with the vertically-integrated production.

Source: Businesswire