Japan's Sharp Considers Selling US-Based Solar Energy Subsidiary As Company Winds Down Overseas Solar Ventures

Japanese electronics giant Sharp Corp. (TYO:6753) is steadily whittling down its solar energy operations. The company is seeking to sell its U.S. solar development unit, Recurrent Energy, just months after pulling out of several other overseas solar ventures, Bloomberg News reported Monday.

“Sharp is considering various options for Recurrent including sale of the company, but nothing has been decided at this point,” spokeswoman Miyuki Nakayama told Bloomberg. Recurrent Energy declined to comment.

Sharp paid $305 million in cash for the San Francisco developer in 2010. Selling the solar unit would help Sharp raise capital as it struggles to balance its debt-to-equity ratio, Reuters noted.

The deal follows Sharp’s decision in January to stop making solar panels at its plants in Memphis, Tennessee, and in the U.K. The company also pulled out of an Italian panel manufacturing joint venture. Profit in Sharp’s energy unit plunged 97 percent in its first fiscal quarter amid slowing residential solar sales in Japan, Bloomberg said.

Recurrent Energy has developed and sold more than 680 megawatts of projects in the United States and Canada and has more than 4,300 megawatts under development, the company said. Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and the private equity group KKR & Co. in November teamed up with Recurrent Energy to buy six utility-scale solar projects in California and Arizona, in a deal valued at $400 million.