Toshiba has revealed that it will stop its residential solar business in Japan, due to rising competition in the segment and a new approach for its overall business strategy.

The Japanese electronics manufacturer said it will transfer all after-sale services to its XSOL unit in March.

“We will continue to provide after-sales service for our products and for residential solar power generation systems for more than 20 years,” said Toshiba.

The company said it will focus its solar business on the development and construction of commercial and industrial PV projects, as well as the production of polymer film-based perovskite solar modules.

The company started operating as a residential PV system supplier in Japan in 2010. In September 2021, it claimed to have achieved the highest efficiency ever reached for a large-area, polymer film-based perovskite PV module. Looking forward, the company says it wants to enlarge the module area and achieve efficiencies close to 20%.

In September 2022, it claimed a 9.5% efficiency rating for a transparent cuprous oxide (Cu₂O) thin-film solar cell. It said that by placing the Cu₂Ocell over a silicon (Si) cell with 25% efficiency, it could achieve a Cu₂O-Si tandem cell with 28.5% efficiency.