Japan to build its largest solar energy plant this year

Electric power derived from solar energy has just taken a great surge forward in Japan.

Three of Japan’s leading corporations have banded together to build a “mega-solar power plant” capable of producing 70 megawatts of solar energy. It will be the largest solar power plant in Japan to date.

The plant is a dramatic solution to Japan’s efforts to divorce itself from nuclear power in the wake of the catastrophic Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident in March 2011.

The “Kagoshima Nanatsujima Mega-Solar Power Plant” is a joint project of Kyocera Corporation, IHI Corporation and Mizuho Corporate Bank, Ltd. It will be built in Kagoshima City in Kagoshima Prefecture.

Kyocera will supply all of the solar modules and part of the construction and maintenance of the system; IHI will lease the land while Mizuho will devise a financing plan for the project.

Total project cost is estimated at US$309 million with construction to begin this July. The power plant site is 1.27 million square meters in size.

The 79,000MWh of electricity generated yearly will provide power for some 22,000 average households and will help offset 25,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year.

A special-purpose company will be established to operate the mega-solar plant with Kyocera becoming the largest shareholder.