Kyoto, Japan, Oct 30, 2006 - (JCN Newswire) - Sharp Corporation has increased annual production capacity for solar cells at its Katsuragi Plant in Nara Prefecture by 100 MW (megawatts) to meet burgeoning demand in Japan and abroad, and has constructed a system that will be able to enter full production by November 2006. As a result, solar cell production capacity at the Katsuragi Plant will reach 600 MW per year, the world's highest.

Despite concerns in the photovoltaic (PV) power generating market about a shortage of processed silicon (the raw material for solar cells), PV systems are increasingly being used in Japan for industrial applications and are being installed on new residential construction in collaboration with home builders. In Europe and the U.S.A., demand is expected to expand even further in the future, centered on industrial and commercial uses thanks to the introduction of subsidies and implementation of policies mandating power buy-back programs by utilities.

To more effectively utilize raw materials, Sharp is working to make solar cells even thinner and improve thin-film solar cells which use minimal amounts of silicon, as well as establish highly efficient production systems and expand and upgrade its production lines. For the future, Sharp has set a goal to further expand its solar energy business, which holds out tremendous potential as clean energy that does not generate substances that place a burden on the environment.Integration of these next generation features into our optical solutions enables remote delivery of any wavelength with any service to any location at any time without the need for intensive optical planning or engineering," said Philippe Morin, general manager, Optical Networks, Nortel. "We are excited to help service providers and cable operators implement an intelligent, adaptive optical network to support introduction of the disruptive new services their customers demand."

New core features to Nortel's optical portfolio include enhanced Reconfigurable Optical Add Drop Multiplexing (eROADM) functionality to enable reduced costs associated with redirecting wavelengths, and electronic Dynamically Compensating Optics (eDCO) to extend wavelength distances while enabling reduced network planning and engineering costs. Both of these new features are supported by the Domain Optical Controller (DOC), an end-to-end intelligent provisioning and management software platform.
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The eROADM is a functional module included in Nortel's 40Gbps-ready Common Photonic Layer (CPL) platform, employing wavelength-selective switching (WSS) to enable all-optical switching and redirection of a wavelength to up to five different rings in the network. This limits the need for costly fiber interconnection points with optical-to-electrical-to-optical (OEO) conversions, and creates more simplicity and flexibility in managing wavelengths across the network.

Nortel's new eDCO functionality, first introduced on Optical Multiservice Edge (OME) 6500, complements and enables increased benefits of the eROADM module by providing increased automation when deploying new or redirected optical wavelengths. Traditionally, redirecting individual wavelengths to a new network path required extensive planning and reengineering of the optical line to ensure proper power levels and modulation adjusted for the new path. eDCO capabilities in OME 6500 enable the platform to dynamically adjust the modulation of individual wavelengths when they are redirected to a new path, over a different fiber type, or over a longer distance. In addition, eDCO enables fiber spans of up to 2,000 kilometers as well as tunable lasers for reduced sparing requirements.