JFE Engineering has been contracted to build a 21.7MW photovoltaic power plant on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido by Japanese investment management firm Sparx Group.
According to statements issued by both companies, the installation will span 47 hectares in Kushiro City on Hokkaido, the northernmost of Japan’s main island territories, where land has been freed up for ground mounted utility-scale projects.
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JFE is a subsidiary of Japanese holding company JFE.
A traditional prayer for safety and good fortune was said at a ceremony held on 31 July as construction began, expected to be completed at the end of May 2015. The 21.7MW plant will have an annual output of 24,000,000kWh, equivalent to the power consumption of 6,700 households. The plant will be eligible for the feed-in tariff and electricity generated will be sold to Hokkaido Electric Power Company. Around ¥8 billion (US$80 million) will be invested at Kushiro with ¥2.7 billion (US$28 million) coming from Sparx Group.
Sparx, a subsidiary of Sparx Asset Management, has been chosen to manage the public-private partnership investment fund which it formed with the Tokyo Metropolitan Authority ahead of the project in June 2012.
Sparx Asset Management is currently conducting feasibility studies and further research into five megasolar (over 1MW in size) projects for the public-private partnership to invest in, of which Kushiro City will be the second. The first, a 1.8MW project in the county of Miyaki in Saga prefecture was already completed in April, with further projects planned in Akita, Gunma and Kanagawa prefectures.
