Five new backers have joined Kyocera Corp, Kyudenko Corp and Mizuho Bank to support the development of an up to 480MW solar plant on the island of Ukujima in Japan.
The additional project participants are SPCG Public Company, Tokyo Century Corp, Furukawa Electric, Tsuboi Corp and The Eighteenth Bank.
Photovolt Development Partners, which started planning the project in April 2013, is transferring feed-in tariff rights for the solar farm to a newly established special purpose company called Ukujima Future Energy Holdings.
About $1.8bn in investment is planned for the project, with a goal of starting construction in the fiscal year ending March 2019, the companies said.
Kyocera will supply about 1.65 million multicrystalline silicon solar modules for the project, which will generate 515,000 megawatt-hours of electricity a year.
A 64km undersea cable between Ukujima and the island of Kyushu will allow all power produced from the project to be sold to the local utility company Kyushu Electric Power.
Some of the modules are planned to be constructed on stilts to allow the land to be used both for electricity generation and agriculture.
Image: Kyocera
Squad boost for Japan mega-solar
By EBS