Toshiba goes solar

TOSHIBA has decided that it can't make enough cash from laptops and consumer electronics and has decided to branch out into the solar-photovoltaics business.

The outfit does not want to build stuff that punters strap to their roof. Instead it thinks that the cash is in utility-scale solar power plants.

Toshiba's has put its photovoltaics business under the wing of its Transmission Distribution & Industrial Systems business, which makes equipment for natural-gas power plants.

This is the same division which makes rechargeable batteries and has a systems integration operation for installing power generation equipment.

According to EETimes the push into solar energy is part of Toshiba's corporate goal to lower its carbon emissions and environmental impact.

However it thinks it can grow its solar-photovoltaics business into a $2.2 billion empire by 2015. µ