Japanese imaging and electronics company Ricoh has announced plans to begin producing perovskite solar cells in Japan by 2030.

The factory will be located at Ricoh Industry Co., Ltd.’s Tohoku site in Shibata, Miyagi prefecture, northern Japan, and will use a manufacturing process based on Ricoh’s proprietary inkjet technology. “With future expansion to GW-scale production in mind, Ricoh aims to establish annual production capacity of several hundred MW by 2030,” the company said in a statement.

Ricoh said its inkjet technology enables precise control over microscopic droplets, allowing materials to be deposited in the required quantities at specific locations. By using the technology to pattern-print all functional layers of perovskite solar cells, the company aims to improve material utilization, simplify manufacturing processes, increase productivity and reduce production costs.

“Ricoh has pursued research and development of organic solar cells based on organic photoconductor technologies developed through the innovation of its multifunction printers,” the company said. “Technologies cultivated through these efforts are now being applied to perovskite solar cells.”

Ricoh said the combination of inkjet printing and substrate transport technologies developed for commercial printing enables continuous, high-speed processing of roll-to-roll substrates, increasing production throughput while reducing manufacturing costs.

In November 2025, Ricoh announced that its perovskite solar cells would undergo testing aboard the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) unmanned HTV-X1 cargo spacecraft. The two-month demonstration was designed to assess power generation, electrical performance and durability under space conditions. Ricoh has been developing perovskite solar cells for space applications in collaboration with JAXA since 2017.

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