Showa Shell’s “Energy Solutions” unit – of which thin-filmgiant Solar Frontier forms the major part – remains but a small part of itsoverall business, with its oil-related activities still accounting for nearly95% of Showa Shell’s overall revenues of ¥2.95tr ($28.9bn) last year.

However, Energy Solutions is growing far more rapidly thanthe company’s legacy oil-refining business, with revenues surging 80.4% lastyear to ¥141.2bn, principally on strong sales at Solar Frontier.

Critically, the Energy Solutions unit reported a net income of¥17.5bn, compared to a net loss of ¥15.4bn in 2012.

While Showa Shell – which is minority owned by Saudi Aramco– does not break out Solar Frontier’s performance individually, it notes thathigher sales and reduced costs drove its solar business to “its first everfull-year profit”.

In addition to Solar Frontier, the Energy Solutions unitowns a natural-gas plant, and is building a biomass plant and several largesolar arrays.

2013 was a banner year for Solar Frontier, which profitedhugely from the booming Japanese PV market, with growing business across theresidential, commercial and mega-solar sectors.

Solar Frontier’s 900MW Kunitomi module factory ran at fullcapacity throughout 2013; its 60MW Miyazaki plant resumed production last July;and in December the company announced plans to open a new 150MW module factoryin the Tohoku region.

While Showa Shell says that Solar Frontier’s business “willremain focused on Japan for the time being”, it notes that it is “makingpreparations” to expand sales internationally.

The Tohoku plant will act as a “blueprint” for futurefactories outside Japan, with the company having recently told Recharge that any foreign factories willlikely be of a modest size, allowing it to get close to a number of keyemerging markets.

Showa Shell expects its overall revenues to grow by 7% in 2014, although growth at Solar Frontier will likely be far greater.

Improving the operational efficiency of Solar Frontier's factories remains a priority in the year ahead, Showa Shell says.