Jan. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Toshiba Corp., Japan’s biggest supplier of nuclear reactors, said it targets 200 billion yen ($2.2 billion) in sales of solar power systems for industrial use in the year ending March 2016, helped by overseas demand.

The Tokyo-based company, which has supplied solar-cell equipment to Japanese schools, factories and power plants since 1984, created a division dedicated to the business to bolster operations, Hiroko Mochida, a spokeswoman for Toshiba, said by phone. She declined to give current revenue at the unit.

Demand for renewable energy will help raise global sales from solar photovoltaic systems 83 percent to $24.4 billion in the period, from about $13.3 billion in the year to March 31, Toshiba said in a faxed statement today.

The company will buy solar panels and make its own inverters, devices that convert direct electric current to alternating, Mochida said, without elaborating.

Toshiba rose 2.2 percent to close at 374 yen on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average gained 2.1 percent. Japanese markets opened for a half day of trading today.

To contact the reporter on this story: Pavel Alpeyev in Tokyo at palpeyev@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: January 4, 2009 21:14 EST