Marubeni To Launch Mega-Solar Power Project In Sekikawa Village, Niigata

Marubeni Corporation (“Marubeni”) has entered into an agreement for the construction of three mega-solar power plants in Sekikawa Village, Iwafune County in Niigata Prefecture. The project is being jointly developed with Mibugawa Power Company (“Mibugawa”); a wholly-owned subsidiary of Marubeni. Construction will be carried out from July to December 2014 and the plants will be handled by Mibugawa.

With the support of Sekikawa Village, Mibugawa will build and operate the plants at three locations owned by either Sekikawa Village or private owners. The total capacity of the plants is approximately 2,700 kW and they are expected to collectively produce approximately 2.6 million kWh per annum, corresponding to the annual electricity consumption of 700 ordinary houses. The generated power will be sold for over 20 years under Japan's feed-in-tariff scheme.

Marubeni will construct the environmentally friendly mega-solar plants by utilizing disused spaces such as closed school grounds located in Sekikawa Village. Stable operation of the plants will be conducted by utilizing Mibugawa’s more than 50 years of renewable energy power plant operational know-how, in addition to its operational experience of the 4.3MW mega-solar power project in Shimizu Town, Hokkaido.

Marubeni already has three mega-solar projects (82MW in Oita, 4.3MW in Hokkaido and 1.1MW in Miyazaki) in operation and two more projects (49MW in Aichi/Mie and 28.3MW in Miyagi) under development. Marubeni is determined to further spread utilization of renewable energy such as wind power, geothermal power and small/medium-scale hydropower generation to meet society’s demand for the reduction of environmental impact.