Mitsubishi Materials builds solar plants in Fukushima

Mitsubishi Materials Corp has started operation of solar power plants with a total output of about 8.3MW in Fukushima Prefecture.

The power producer for the mega (large-scale) solar power plants, Yabuki Solar Power Plant, is MM Sun Power, a 50-50 joint venture between Mitsubishi Materials and Mitsubishi UFJ Lease & Finance Co Ltd.

The plants were built by using four unoccupied areas of Yabuki Techno Park, which Mitsubishi Materials Real Estate Corp, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Materials, runs in Yabuki-machi, Nishishirakawa-gun, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan.

The Yabuki Solar Power Plant consists of four solar power plants built on the four areas. The total site area is 103,624m2, and the total output of solar panels installed at the plants is 8.284MW. The plants transmit a total of 6.544MW of electricity to the power grid.

The total outputs of panels set up at the four plants are 2.592MW (grid connection: 1.995MW), 2.133MW (grid connection: 1.719MW), 1.922MW (grid connection: 1.500MW) and 1.637MW (grid connection: 1.330MW).

Chiyoda Corp is responsible for EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) services. The solar panel and PV inverter employed for the plants are products of Solar Frontier KK and Toshiba Mitsubishi-Electric Industrial Systems Corp (TMEIC), respectively.

The Yabuki Solar Power Plant is MM Sun Power’s fifth mega solar plant in operation. The total output of the five plants is 24.7MW. In general, for the development of the company’s mega solar plants, the Mitsubishi Materials group secures the land and Mitsubishi UFJ Lease & Finance is responsible for financing, contract processing, etc.

The other four power plants are a 2.58MW plant in Kanda-machi, Miyako-gun, Fukuoka Prefecture (near Mitsubishi Materials’ Kyushu Plant), 2.476MW plant in Sakuragawa City, Ibaraki Prefecture (land that Mitsubishi Materials owns in an industrial park), 2.58MW plant in Fukui City, Fukui Prefecture (on the premises of the Fukui Factory of Mitsubishi Cable Industries Ltd, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Materials), and 8.786MW plant in Kurihara City, Miyagi Prefecture (deposit site of Hosokura Material Mining Co, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Materials).

Japantoday