Solar Frontier’s 900MW CIS thin film plant reaches commercial operational status

Despite reports that Solar Frontier’s 900MW, CIS thin film production plant in Miyazaki, Japan has reached full capacity the company has said nothing of the sort. What Solar Frontier has said is that all production lines are now commercially operational having started its production ramp earlier this year. The Kunitomi Plant was said to be ‘on track to reach its targeted annual capacity of 900MW as average module output continues to increase, without giving a timeline. The Kunitomi Plant is said to be Japan’s largest solar module production facility, as well as the largest CIS factory in the world.

“We were able to execute this fast ramp-up at our third plant through experienced leadership and a compact workforce of highly skilled individuals that rate among the world’s best,” said Hiroshi Yoshida, Vice President, Manufacturing at Solar Frontier. “Experience gained from our first two factories has paid off well.”

“The Atsugi Research Center (ARC) functioned as a production laboratory where we were able to fine-tune processes from raw materials to finished modules until our modeling matched precisely what we wanted to see in production,” said Satoru Kuriyagawa, Solar Frontier’s Chief Technology Officer. “We increased the efficiency of the factory with ten-fold scale over Plant 2 and extensive automation while also increasing the size and efficiency of the modules coming off the Kunitomi production line.”