TOGETHER AS ONE: (Fifth left) Chairman of Kulim Technology Park Corporation, Datuk Amiruddin Hamzah and (fifth right) Kedah Exco for Religious Affairs, Education and Cooperative, Dato’ Mohamed Taulan Mat Rasul together with top officers of Panasonic Group posing with shovels during the ground breaking ceremony.
KUCHING: Panasonic Energy Malaysia Sdn Bhd (Panasonic), a solar manufacturing company of Panasonic Corporation established in December 2011, witnessed the groundbreaking ceremony and the exchanging of the Land Lease Agreement on the manufacturing base with the Kedah state government.
According to a press release, the new facility would commence construction immediately and aimed to start its operation by December 2012 to manufacture Panasonic HIT (Heterojunction with Intrinsic Thin-layer) solar modules.
HAND IN HAND: Yorihisa Shiokawa, managing director of Panasonic Asia Pacific is seen helping Datuk Mohamed Taulan Mat Rasul, Kedah Exco for Religious Affairs, Education and Cooperative to officiate the ground breaking ceremony in Japanese style.
The new Panasonic RM1.84 billion (45 billion yen) base would perform integrated manufacturing of solar wafers, cells, and modules with an estimated annual production capacity of 300MW.
With increasing environmental awareness globally and the introduction of subsidy systems as well as Feed-in-Tariff schemes in various countries, the solar market was predicted to grow further.
Robust demand was expected particularly in the residential sector, the main target area of Panasonic HIT solar modules.
The new solar manufacturing base was located at Kulim Hi-tech Park, Kedah built with a building area of approximately 70,000sq metres.
Boasting a capital of RM0.92 billion, a 100 per cent subscription from Panasonic Asia Pacific Pte Ltd, the new manufacturing facility would boost Panasonic’s production capacity to 1.5 times greater than at the present.
“Thanks to the tremendous support from the Malaysian government, we are able to hold this groundbreaking ceremony today.
“Once the new manufacturing facility starts running, our production capacity will be 1.5 times greater than the present,” Masato Ito, president, Energy Company of Panasonic Corporation said.
“And with the facility at the core, we hope to continuously contribute to the development of Malaysia, as well as further expanding our business globally,” Ito further stressed.
This new base would not only help Panasonic increase solar module production and meet the market demand, but also strengthen cost competitiveness by setting up Panasonic’s first integrated production of wafers, cells, and modules.
Panasonic would sell its solar modules not only individually but also in a system with storage batteries and other devices.
Further, Panasonic would accelerate its solar business development globally in collaboration with Comprehensive Energy Solutions Business brought together by the Panasonic group companies.
“Panasonic Group is focused on building a competitive global energy business.
“With Panasonic Energy Malaysia serving as our new solar manufacturing base, we are confident that it will accelerate our solar business development globally and expand our total energy solution capacity,” said Panasonic Asia Pacific managing director Yorihisa Shiokawa.