Solar Power Generation : ITOCHU Corporation

In April 2009, ITOCHU Corporation established the Solar Business Department, to accelerate its solar power generation business. Expectations for renewable energy are rising because of tight energy supply due to the rapid growth of demand as well as the recent rise in awareness over global environmental issues. Among this, the demand for solar power generation has increased.
In Europe, the number of countries that legally guarantee the purchase price of power based on the ‘feed-in-tariff system’ has increased and it is presumed that about 84% of all electrical power will be provided by renewable energy by 2020.

ITOCHU has invested aggressively in this field, having taken stakes in NorSun AS (a Norwegian producer of ingot wafer) in December 2006, Solar Depot LLC (the US systems integrator or SI) in June 2007, Scatec Solar A.S. (a Norwegian SI) in May 2008, Greenvision Ambiente Photo-Solar SRL (an Italian SI) in December 2008, Enolia Solar Systems S.A. (a Greek SI) in February 2009, Ecosystem Japan Co., Ltd. in March 2009, and Solar Net LLC (the US SI) in April 2009. ITOCHU has been conducting business activities in the 3 major markets of Europe, the USA, and Japan.
To cope with the diversified needs of its customers and with increasing demand for cost reductions as the solar power generation spreads, ITOCHU plans to promote the building of a unique and comprehensive value chain from upstream to downstream, aggressively work on the new technologies and build and construct the most appropriate and powerful sales network and efficient distribution channel in each of these markets. ITOCHU Corporation will contribute to society by expanding the solar power generation business with its great potential as a renewable energy.

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