Honda has produced solar cells on a large scale since 2007

Japan's third largest car maker Honda announced in December 19th that it will begin mass production of solar cells from 2007, to meet the growing demand for clean energy.

According to the Reuters reported on December 19th, Honda automobile company said in a statement, they will be on the island of Kyushu in Xiongben city to build a car factory specializing in the production of solar battery factory, once the new factory with an annual capacity of 27.5 megawatts (enough to reach 8000 households meet the daily electricity demand) level, each year will be able to get 5 billion yen to 8 billion yen from the solar battery sales ($40 million to $70 million) revenue.

Honda automobile company also said that they will be put into the solar cell production material used is not containing silicon compounds, compared with traditional silicon solar cell materials, its consumption in the production process of energy is only half of the latter, two carbon dioxide emissions will be reduced to 50%. Honda hopes that it can be used both in industrial and civil fields. Before the start of mass production, they also plan to make small scale production and sales in some areas of Japan in late 2006.

Honda did not specify when to achieve maximum capacity, but also refused to disclose the size of the investment in the end how much. However, according to the "Japanese economic news" estimates, the amount of investment may be nearly 10 billion yen, Honda automobile company is expected to be fierce competition with other major solar cell manufacturers including KYOCERA, SHARP and MITSUBISHI motor company.