The deal ends years of speculation about Sharp’s plans to sell the US solar developer, which the Osaka-based electronics group bought for roughly $305m in September 2010.

“We have been shifting our solar-cell business from a conventional business model centred (on) the production of panels and modules to a business model centred on solutions,” Sharp spokesperson Miyuki Nakayama tells Recharge.

"There’s a volatility risk to maintain the considerable amount of funds required for Recurrent Energy… for the initial phases of big projects, you need to have a considerable amount of funds.