Last month, Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd. and Nippon Oil Corporation have jointly established the Sanyo ENEOS Solar Co., Ltd. with equal investment share. While Sanyo Electric is expanding its Heterojunction with Intrinsic Thin-Layer (HIT) solar cell business, which features high conversion efficiency apt for houses and other facilities, the company will also market globally low-cost thin-film solar cells that are suitable for public facilities, including large-scale power-generation plants. This undertaking will be carried out in cooperation with Nippon Oil, which aims at becoming a comprehensive energy provider.Sanyo Electric has more than 30 years of accumulated experience in the research and development of thin-film silicon technology, starting with the development of amorphous solar cells. Leveraging on the thin-film technology, Sanyo Electric developed the hybrid-type HIT solar cell with enhanced power generation efficiency. This was developed by using single-crystalline silicon for the power generation layer and amorphous silicon thin-film for the connection section of the semiconductor. The company started mass production in 1997.
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