Japan's largest PV plant powers up

Apr 23, 2014 - Ben Willis - pv-tech.org

Marubeni's 82MW project in Oita is now operationa. Image: Marbubeni.

Commercial operations have begun on Japan’s largest utility-scale PV plant to date.

The 82MW ‘mega solar’ plant is located in Oita City, in southern Japan, and was built by conglomerate, Marubeni, which recently moved in to large-scale solar project construction.

Power from the plant will be sold to Kyushu Electric Power Company under a 20-year power purchase agreement, with annual output expected to total 87 million kWh.

Modules for the project were supplied by Hanwha Q Cells.

Marubeni is working on other large-scale projects in Japan, including a 49MW project bordering the Mei and Aichi prefectures and a 28.3MW project in Miyagi prefecture.

The Oita project supersedes the 70MW Kagushima Nanatsujima PV plant as Japan's largest. This project entered commercial operation last November.