Marubeni Corporation (“Marubeni”) has commenced construction of a mega-solar power project in Iwaki City, Fukushima. The project is being jointly developed with Mibugawa Power Company, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Marubeni, Japan Asia Investment Co., Ltd, (“JAIC”) and Fukushima Mega No. 1 Inc., a company in which JAIC is investing. The project will be handled by Mibugawa Power Company and is scheduled to be completed in November 2014.
The power plant capacity is 2.2MW and is expected to produce approximately 2.5 million kWh per annum, corresponding to the annual electricity consumption of 700 ordinary houses. The generated power will be sold for over 20 years under Japan's feed-in-tariff scheme.
Marubeni, Mibugawa Power Company and JAIC have each brought their strengths to realize this project. Marubeni has a proven track record as the Project Integrator of the Fukushima Floating Offshore Wind Farm Demonstration Project in Fukushima, Mibugawa Power Company possesses strong development capability and management experience of renewable power projects such as mega-solar, and JAIC has aggressiveness for investment in projects that produce long-term stable profits.
Marubeni will conduct stable operation of this plant by utilizing Mibugawa Power Company’s more than 50 years of hydro power plant operational know-how, in addition to its operational experience of the 4.3MW mega-solar power project in Shimizu Town, Hokkaido.
Marubeni already has three mega-solar projects (82MW in Oita, 4.3MW in Hokkaido and 1.1MW in Miyazaki) in operation and two more projects (49MW in Aichi/Mie and 28.3MW in Miyagi) under development. Marubeni is determined to further spread utilization of renewable energy such as wind power, geothermal power and small/medium-scale hydropower generation to meet society’s demand for the reduction of environmental impact.