News Article
Japanese solar plants to help recovery
Tokyo based Marubeni Corporation has announced the launch of a mega-solar power project by constructing a large-scale solar power plant in Iwanuma City, Miyagi Prefecture.
The power plant, known as the Iwanuma-Rinku Mega-solar, is expected to be the largest solar power plant in the Tohoku region of Japan.
Construction will begin in April 2014 with plant completion scheduled for April 2015.The power plant capacity is 28.3MW and is expected to produce approximately 29 million kWh per annum, corresponding to the annual electricity consumption of 8,000 homes. The generated power will be sold for over 20 years under Japan's feed-in-tariff scheme.
The project is part of a region-wide reconstruction project designed to support Iwanuma City recover after the Great East Japan Earthquake and the Tsunami in 2011.The project site suffered land subsidence and salt-damaged soil which rendered the land unsuitable for farming. As a result, Iwanuma City proposed a mega-solar project on the affected land in June 2012 and Marubeni was selected as the business operator.
Marubeni's other mega-solar power plant projects include 82MW in Oita and 49MW in Mie/Aichi.
