The 231MW facility has received investment funds from Kuni Umi Asset Management, GE Energy Financial Services and Toyo Engineering Corporation via special purpose company and representative member Setouchi Future Creations. GE Energy Financial Services holds a 60 percent stake in the $1.1 billion project but other financial details have not yet been disclosed.
The three owners have raised more debt than any prior renewable energy project in the country. An $867 million loan has been provided on a non-recourse project finance basis by a syndicate of Japanese banks, led by Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Mizuho Bank and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and including local financial institutions.
The plant itself will be built by Toyo Engineering and Shimizu Corporation with construction commencing in November on 260 hectares (1,210 acres) of city land on the former Kinkai salt field. The project is expected to begin commercial operations during Q2 2019 and will sell its power to Chugoku Electric Power Company under a 20-year power purchase agreement via Japan’s renewable energy feed-in-tariff regime.
“In addition to the Setouchi solar project, we developed a mega-solar power plant in Mito-city Ibaraki Prefecture and started the construction of a woodchip biomass fuel power plant in Kawaminami-cho, Miyazaki Prefecture” said Yasuyo Yamazaki, the president and chief executive officer of Kuni Umi Asset Management. “Now we are planning a wind farm in Nakadomari-cho, Aomori Prefecture. With these projects, we are contributing to the Ideal Region Development with renewable energy.”
Sushil Verma, a managing director and Japan business leader at GE Energy Financial Services, added that Japan’s favourable regulatory policies make solar power attractive, helping to diversify the country’s power generation sources. The Kuni Umi project will help the company to expand its international renewable energy portfolio which already include investment commitments of $1.8 billion in equity and debt in more than one gigawatt of solar power projects worldwide.
In addition to capital, GE will supply some of the inverters, marking the debut in Japan of the GE 1 MW Brilliance Solar Inverter, which has been designed to eliminate the need for an intermediate transformer, resulting in higher conversion efficiency and superior grid performance.
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