(Bloomberg) — Kyocera Corp. is aiming to double sales in
the U.S. solar market for the year ending March 31 as the
company tries to expand its businesses outside Japan.
The ceramics maker is planning to sell storage devices with
solar panels in the U.S. because “there is growing need for
energy storage,” President Goro Yamaguchi told reporters Friday.
About 10 percent of sales from Kyocera’s solar business
were generated in markets outside Japan in the 12 months ended
March 31. For this fiscal year, Kyocera is targeting 20 percent
of its solar sales from overseas, Yamaguchi said, without
providing a specific sales goal for the U.S.
The Kyoto-based maker of solar panels is on track to
achieve its goal of producing 1.2 gigawatts of solar panels for
this fiscal year, according to Yamaguchi.
Kyocera has been selling lithium-ion battery systems in
Japan to store power generated from residential solar panels
during the day for use at night. The company is forecasting
sales of about 10,000 storage systems in Japan by the end of the
fiscal year, he said.
The company’s applied ceramic products group, which
includes solar panels, posted a profit of 8 billion yen ($66
million) for the six months through Sept. 30, while sales in the
section fell 8.9 percent, according to filings released
Thursday.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Chisaki Watanabe in Tokyo at
cwatanabe5@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Reed Landberg at
landberg@bloomberg.net
Iain Wilson, Indranil Ghosh