Last autumn it was widelyreported that the Osaka company would sell the wholly owned unit for¥25bn ($261m) as part of itsrestructuring efforts.

“It was a rumour — 100% speculation,” Sharp spokeswoman MiyukiNakayama tells Recharge. “[Recurrent] is doing quite well and we don’t have anyplans to sell it.”

Sharp spent roughly $305m inSeptember 2010 to acquire the San Francisco company, which claims a North American PV pipeline of 2GW.

This