Kyocera today announced that it has proudly installed more than 1,200 solar power generating systems at public schools in Japan — ranking Kyocera as the No.1 supplier in this segment of the Japanese market. The use of solar power at schools in Japan has grown exponentially in recent years with the government’s School New Deal initiative, which aims to broadly enrich the nation’s educational facilities. Since the start of the School New Deal initiative, the number of schools Kyocera has supplied to has increased dramatically, with over 1,200 schools in the country now utilizing the power of the sun with Kyocera modules. In the market for school installations in Japan, Kyocera holds the No.1 share with over 40%.
Use of solar power at schools is part of the larger trend of growth in Japan’s public- and industrial-use solar power market, which has expanded by roughly 3.6-times in the five-year period from FY2005 to FY2010. As solar power installations in this market segment typically require a diverse range of systems to optimize performance depending on the specific site, Kyocera’s business model in Japan is able to apply its design and installation technologies which have been cultivated through the company’s many years of experience in the solar industry.