Kyocera targets doubling sales in U.S. residential solar, storage

Kyocera Corp. is aiming to double sales in the U.S. solar market for the year ending March 31 as the company tries to expand its businesses outside Japan. The ceramics maker is planning to sell storage devices with solar panels in the U.S. because “there is growing need for energy storage,” President Goro Yamaguchi told reporters Friday.

About 10 percent of sales from Kyocera’s solar business were generated in markets outside Japan in the 12 months ended March 31. For this fiscal year, Kyocera is targeting 20 percent of its solar sales from overseas, Yamaguchi said, without providing a specific sales goal for the U.S. The Kyoto-based maker of solar panels is on track to achieve its goal of producing 1.2 GW of solar panels for this fiscal year, according to Yamaguchi.

Kyocera has been selling lithium-ion battery systems in Japan to store power generated from residential solar panels during the day for use at night. The company is forecasting sales of about 10,000 storage systems in Japan by the end of the fiscal year, he said. The company’s applied ceramic products group, which includes solar panels, posted a profit of 8 billion yen ($66 million) for the six months through Sept. 30, while sales in the section fell 8.9 percent, according to filings released on Oct. 29.

©2015 Bloomberg News

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