Sharp Corporation Completes Acquisition of Recurrent Energy

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Recurrent Energy and Sharp Corporation (TSE:6753) announced today that Sharp has completed the acquisition of Recurrent Energy, a leading solar project developer and generating company. Sharp paid $305 million in cash to purchase a 100 percent stake in Recurrent Energy, which is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Sharp.

“We will continue to work with a variety of vendors to ensure we have the most appropriate equipment for our projects based on price and quality.”

Arno Harris continues as CEO of Recurrent Energy and reports to Toshishige Hamano, Sharp’s Executive Vice President responsible for overseas business. Recurrent Energy’s executive team and employees will also continue with the company.

“Our Recurrent Energy subsidiary is the primary solar power generation platform for Sharp and expands our photovoltaic business into the key area of project development,” said Toshishige Hamano. “Recurrent Energy’s expertise and relationships will help Sharp become a total solutions company in the photovoltaic field, extending from developing and producing solar cells and modules to developing and marketing solar power generation plants.”

Recurrent Energy currently has a development pipeline of about 2 GW, with over 330 MW of contracted distributed-scale solar power projects primarily in North America, in addition to projects and joint development agreements in Europe and the Middle East.

“Sharp’s scale and resources will help us to accelerate our growth and further cement Recurrent Energy’s position as the leading global solar generating company,” said Arno Harris, CEO, Recurrent Energy. “We will continue to work with a variety of vendors to ensure we have the most appropriate equipment for our projects based on price and quality.”

About SHARP

Since its founding in 1912, Sharp has developed numerous world-first and Japan-first products, including the first Japan-made radios, TVs, and the world’s first all-transistor/diode desktop calculator. Sharp has contributed to society by commercializing these unique products.

Today, in addition to its core LCD TV business, Sharp is also focusing on its solar cell business. It has been more than 50 years since Sharp first started researching solar cells. Over this long period of time, solar cells made by Sharp have been used not only in residential and industrial applications, but also on lighthouses and satellites, thus proving their long-term reliability. Sharp constructed one of the world’s largest solar cell production facilities for thin-film solar cells at Sakai City in Osaka Prefecture, which started mass production in March 2010.

Sharp Corporation employs 65,000 people worldwide (as of July 31, 2010), and recorded consolidated annual sales of 2,755,948 million yen for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2010. For more information, please visit Sharp’s Web site at http://sharp-world.com/index.html.

About Recurrent Energy

Recurrent Energy is a leading solar project developer and generating company marketing clean power to utilities and large energy users. Recurrent Energy is meeting rising energy demand by building a global portfolio of clean power plants located where they are needed most. The company has a global pipeline of over 2 GW of solar projects in development across North America, Europe, and emerging markets. Recurrent Energy is a US subsidiary of Sharp Corporation. For more information on Recurrent Energy and distributed solar power, please visit www.recurrentenergy.com.