Asahi Glass Co Ltd has decided to enhance glass production facilities for solar cells. Spending around 13 BN Yen in total, Asahi will establish a new furnace for the cover glass of solar cells (production capacity: 240/tpd; 7M m2/pa) and an AR coating line at subsidiary AGC Flat Glass (Suzhou) Co Ltd (Jiangsu, China), as well as setting up an additional TCO coating line (production capacity 6M m2/pa) at the Aichi plant. The cover glass production facility is expected to begin mass production in the second quarter 2009 and the TCO coating line at the end of 2008. In 2007, photovoltaic power generation grew to around 3.4 or 3.5GW, more than three times the amount generated in 2004. Such power generation is expected to increase sharply at 40% annually in years to come. In the current market, crystal silicon solar cells represent the mainstream technology.
