Takashi Tomita (right), a Tokyo University professor and researcher for Japanese electronics giant Sharp, displays an innovative solar power panel using moving fresnel mirrors that follow the sun throughout the day, at a preview in Tokyo on June 3, 2011. -- PHOTO: AFP

TOKYO - A NEW Japanese solar power device can generate twice the electricity of current models thanks to moving mirrors that follow the sun throughout the day, its developers said on Friday.

Smart Solar International, a Tokyo start-up that also has an office in California, will start producing the system in Japan in August, hoping it will be adopted in tsunami-hit areas along the northern Pacific coast.

Sample sales are set to begin in October, with overseas sales targeting especially Asia and the Middle East set for 2014 or earlier.

The device features a row of aluminum mirror bars that can slowly rotate as the sun moves across the sky and reflect its light back onto a central tube that is packed with high-performance, multi-layered solar cells.

Its inventors say the system requires far less silicon - the most expensive component, which is imported mostly from China at the moment - than the conventional larger flat photovoltaic cell panels.

The tube has a system to prevent overheating, which reduces the efficiency of power generation, and the excess heat can be used to heat water. 'You can get both electricity and heat from the same device,' said Mr Takashi Tomita, a former Sharp Corp executive who heads the spin-off from the University of Tokyo's Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology