Sharp and Enel set up joint venture for spring 2009

Sharp Corporation and Enel SpA, Italy’s largest power company, are to set up a joint venture in the spring of 2009 which will operate as an independent power producer developing PV power plants with a total capacity of 189MW by the end of 2012.The various power plants will be set up in southern Italy using thin-film solar cells.

The two companies will be working with an unnamed European manufacturing company to construct a thin-film solar cell plant in Italy, which will have the potential to expand its annual production capacity to around 1GW. The first phase of development will have a production system with an annual capacity of 480MW starting operations in the middle of 2010. Sharp and Enel intend to expand their IPP business in the future to include countries in the Mediterranean region other than Italy.