Sharp Aquos Manufacturing Plant

All AQUOS TVs incorporate state-of-the-art environmental technologies from top to bottom. Their finely-honed features deliver performance befitting this era of the environment, including energy efficiency, low resource utilization, long service life, use of green materials and design for recycling.

In August 2006, Sharp opened its second production facility for LCD TVs at Kameyama in Japan. The Kameyama Plant No.2 sets strict standards for protecting the environment, as Kameyama Plant No.1 already does. This is the world’s first facility to use eighth-generation glass substrates, which are roughly twice as large as substrates used in the first plant.

About one-third of the electrical energy needed for production at the plant is generated in combined heat and power systems run on natural gas. Waste heat is recovered and used in air conditioning, for heating water and for producing steam. One of the world’s largest (*1) photovoltaic systems assists the co-generation system in producing energy. In addition, 100% of the waste water is collected from the production process and recycled with water purification technology. The plant is an “environmentally improved factory” with highly advanced technology that Sharp always strives for.

Sharp Corporation has been engaged in the manufacture of energy-saving LCDs and energy-creating solar cells as the pillars of its business, with the goal of becoming an “environmentally advanced company.” In line with that goal, Sharp has almost completed construction of its new state-of-the-art LCD panel plant and a solar cell plant for the mass production of thin-film solar cells on the same site, in Sakai City, Osaka Prefecture.

This project is being developed as a manufacturing complex for the 21st century that will incorporate relevant infrastructure and facilities, as well as attracting complementary material and production equipment manufacturers to construct plants on the same site.

The LCD panel plant is scheduled to start operation by October 2009 and it will be the first (*2) facility to use tenth-generation glass substrates.

*1 Greenpeace Energy Report as of August 2007
*2 Based on publicly available information as of February 2008