SoftBank, Mitsui & Co to put up 111MW Solar Station in Hokkaido Dec. 1

A 111-megawatt solar power station will start commercial operations in Hokkaido, Japan by December 1.

According to Bloomberg, SoftBank Group Corp. and Mitsui & Co. partnered for the renewable energy project. It is expected to produce electricity that can power 30,000 homes a year.

See News reported that telecoms Softbank and trader Mitsui & Co will both own equal stakes in the plant. It will be put up in Abira, Iburi sub-prefecture. The photovoltaic (PV) plant will generate approximately 108,014 MWh a year. 12 local institutions provided the funding needed for the solar power plant. Some of these firms are Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp (SMBC), the Development Bank of Japan Inc (DBJ), and Mizuho Bank Ltd.

SB Energy and Mitsui & Co will be working together to look for new ventures in the renewal energy industry in Japan, according to a report by PV Tech.

The plan to build the solar power plant was announced way back March 2013. It was announced that 79MW of the large-scale solar panels will be connected to the grids in the Hokkaido Electric Power.

Softbank announced it will buy all the electricity generated from the plant. During the announcement, Softbank also said that it will start operation by the end of March 2015. Though this was not met, the plant will still start operations this year.

Softbank started investing in solar energy when the feed-in tariff was implemented in Japan July 2012. The company has already invested in a 39.5MW facility located in Tottori prefecture and it also aims to install PV arrays on the rooftops of 1,000 houses in Japan.

The feed-in tariff has led to the solar industry boom in Japan. Back in 2013, the PV market in Japan was expected to grow by $120 percent.

Japan's solar PV industry has seen feed-in tariff (FIT) cuts this year, which means a decrease in installed capacity addition. Meanwhile, in 2014, it hit a record-breaking 10GW figure.