Solar Headlines

Japanese electronics company Sharp is seeking tieups overseas, improved technology, and ramped-up business at home to boost its solar power business

In late 2007, not long after stepping in as president of Sharp, Mikio Katayama learned an important lesson about the energy industry. Katayama was meeting with diplomats in Japan and government officials overseas to discuss Sharp's business producing photovoltaic solar panels. He had figured mounting evidence about global warming would be a wake-up call for countries to invest more in clean energy technologies. But instead, officials talked about solar energy in terms of national security. "That's when we realized that it wasn't just about saving the environment," he recalled in a recent interview.

Katayama ordered his management team to rethink Sharp's solar business. In the past the Osaka company would rush factories into service when building a new business. But Katayama felt that wouldn't work with solar panels. Among his fears: Countries might not want to reduce their dependence on imported oil only to replace that with a dependence on imported solar panels.

For further information: BusinessWeek