Japan Solar Feed in Tariffs attracts Mitsubishi – Plans Multiple Solar Farms like Softbank

Japan’s Solar Energy Manufacturing Industry is quite large and second only to China which may surprise a lot of readers. Sharp was the largest solar company by revenues and the other six zaibatsus have been present in the solar power manufacturing for a long time.Mitsubishi the Japanese conglomerate with diversified global interests has a big presence in solar and wind energy as well.It has a low profile solar module and system business.The company is known for its high quality panels and has a decent presence in USA and Japan.However like Kyocera it has not been aggressive enough leading to loss in marketshare.

Mitsubishi has mostly looked to overseas market for growth like Wind Energy in the USA .Mitsubishi is a part of the consortium which is looking to set up huge solar power plants in Thailand as well.But now with Japan reaffirming it commitment to renewable energy and on track to kill nuclear energy,Mitsubishi is turning its focus towards the domestic market.Mitsubishi is planning to set up a number of solar power plants in the country to take advantage of the Japan solar Feed in Tariffs which will be introduced soon.Note the Fukushima disaster which led to elevated nuclear radiation levels has changed the energy policy of the country and its powerful businesses.Softbank CEO has already decided to set up a number of power plant in the country using solar energy,now Mitsubishi too is following.Softbank has decided to set up 10 large power plants of 100 million each in partnership with local prefectures for which it will give the 10% equity funding.

Mitsubishi plans to build Japanese solar portfolio

Mitsubishi is planning to take advantage of Japan’s proposed new feed-in tariff (FiT) by building several large-scale solar power plants in the country, according to financial newspaper Nikkei.

Among the portfolio will be a 1MW system that is likely to be located in the Kumamoto Prefecture. Initial investment in the development will be between ¥600-700 million per MW. Discussions on further major projects are already underway with other local government