Business trend
Japanese producers of solar batteries are
in fierce price competition for lower production cost with western and Chinese
producers. Tanaka Precious Metals will start mass-producing a noble metal
pigment for the next-generation solar batteries and put it on the market in
2013 by making the best use of its accumulated technology of noble metal
recycling. Developed by a university in Taiwan, the technology is characterized
by a high rate of conversion efficiency from solar energy to electricity of
11.4%. The price of the pigment is scheduled to be less than 10,000 yen per
gram, less than one twentieth of the international market price. The noble
metal pigment is a powdery pigment that uses ruthenium.
The solar battery based on noble metal
pigment does not have so much conversion efficiency as the silicon-based solar
battery, but it is bendable, lower in production cost, and able to generate
even with low-intensity light. In addition, it can be thin to be attached to
building walls and household furniture. Domestic solar battery producers are
competing in the commercialization of pigment-based solar batteries. At
present, only a Swiss company and an Australian company can supply pigments for
solar batteries. Tanaka will participate in the market with the technology on
low cost production that it has accumulated through recycling hard disk
materials. The company will invest 300 million yen to install equipment with an
annual production capacity of one ton to achieve annual sales of 300 million
yen in 2015.
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