Sharp to Build Large LCD, Solar Cell Complex

Osaka, July 31 (Jiji Press)–Sharp Corp. said Tuesday that it will build a large manufacturing complex for liquid crystal display panels and solar cells in Sakai in the western Japan prefecture of Osaka.

Total investment in the complex will reach some one trillion yen, according to the company.

On top of Sharp’s LCD-making facility, the complex will include plants of other companies, such as a facility of Dai Nippon Printing Co. to make color filters for LCD television sets and a specialty glass plant of Corning Inc. of the United States.

With some 1.27 million square meters, the site for the complex is four times as large as that for Sharp’s current flagship LCD plant in Kameyama, Mie Prefecture, western Japan.

At the complex, Sharp will construct its core LCD plant at a cost of some 380 billion yen, aiming to launch its operations in March 2010. The plant will make LCD panels for 40-, 50- and 60-inch TVs using so-called 10th-generation glass substrates.

Sharp hopes that a solar cell plant will start operations also in March 2010. The plant is seen to be capable of producing thin film solar cells with combined power generation capacity of 1,000 megawatts.END

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