The new members who have joined the project include SPCG Public Company, Tokyo Century, Furukawa Electric, Tsuboi and the Eighteenth Bank.
Photovolt Development Partners (PVDP) started planning for the solar plant back in 2013 is now transferring the right to feed-in tariff (FIT) to a newly established special purpose company Ukujima Future Energy Holdings.
About JPY200bn ($1.8bn) of investment is being planned for the project and it is expected that the construction will begin next year.
The project will use about 1,650,000 of Kyocera’s solar modules, which will create the 480MW system and will generate about 515,000MWh of clean energy per year. This power is enough to be supplied to about 173,000 typical Japanese households.
Power generated from the island will be transmitted using a 64km long undersea cable between Ukujima and the island of Kyushu, where the power will be sold to Kyushu Electric Power, the local utility company based on the national FIT programme for renewable energy.
For the project, a land management company will lease agricultural land or deserted arable land on the island from respective owners and will then be subleased to Ukujima Future Energy, a subsidiary of the special purpose company Ukujima Future Energy Holdings, for the construction and operation of the solar plant.
Image: Kyocera and partners to develop 480MW solar plant in Japan. Photo: Courtesy of RK008/FreeDigitalPhotos.net.
