Greentech Lead Asia: SB Energy, a subsidiary of Softbank,
is planning to initiate Japan’s largest solar power plant at Tomakomai,
Hokkaido. The plant will have an average output of 200,000 kilowatts and a
maximum output of 340,000 kilowatts.
Softbank is planning to install solar panels at a
480-hectare site on the waterfront of an industrial district in eastern
Tomakomai. SB Energy is in talk with Hokkaido Electric Power over electricity
purchases through feed-in tariff system.
Following the Fukushima disaster and massive earthquake
last March, Japan has shut down all but one of its nuclear facilities and is
looking for alternative ways to generate energy.
Softbank announced
in early March that it was setting up solar power plants in Kyoto, Gunma and
Tokushima prefectures, but the size of the plant in Tomakomai far exceeds the
others. The Kyoto facility will have a capacity to produce 4,200 kw, the Gunma
plant 2,400 kw and the Tokushima site 5,600 kw.
The government is yet to finalize the price of
electricity generated by renewable energy sources.
Softbank and Hokkaido Electric will finalize when to
begin the construction of the Tomakomai facility, as well as its output
capacity and the amount of power to be purchased once the government finalizes
the electricity price.