Toshiba today announced its fu

On January 1, Toshiba's Transmission Distribution & Industrial Systems Company established the Photovoltaic Systems Division, a dedicated business management and promotion organization for solar photovoltaic systems.

Solar photovoltaic systems are moving beyond residential applications to large, megawatt-scale projects for utility and industrial plants. Toshiba 's large solar power generation systems include efficient power conditioning systems and the SCiB?the Super Charge ion Battery?Toshiba's breakthrough rechargeable battery. Toshiba also said that it would use its expertise in the system integration, proposing ways to connect generation systems to distribution systems; design microgrids that connect and manage dispersed small-scale power generation sources, including renewable energy sources and in large plant system engineering capabilities.

In fiscal year 2015 the global solar photovoltaic systems market for utility and industrial plants is expected to reach 2.2 trillion yen (approximately US$24.4 billon) from that of 1.2 trillion yen (approximately US$13.3 billion) in fiscal year 2008. Toshiba will promote business expansion by utilizing existing global sales channels and expects to achieve an annual business scale of about 200 billion yen (approximately US$2.2 billion) by fiscal year 2015.