Korea’s LG CNS to build Canadian Solar’s 55 MW Japan solar farm

An affiliate of South Korean conglomerate LG Group has confirmed today that it has secured the rights to develop a 55 MW solar PV plant at the Shin Mine site in Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture.

LG CNS is a renewable systems integrator and subsidiary of the Korean tech giant, and will lead on the establishment of the solar farm, which was announced last week by China’s Canadian Solar.

The development brings together vested interests from China, Japan and South Korea, with Seoul-headquartered Hanwha Asset Management – a subsidiary of Hanwha Group – confirmed earlier this month as the chief financier of the project.

The solar farm will be Canadian Solar’s largest PV installation in Japan to date when it reaches commercial operation in May 2018.

For LG CNS, the contract augments its Japanese solar PV portfolio to 162 MW, which makes it the leading South Korean solar developer in the country. LG CNS has already completed four large-scale Japanese solar farms and remains one of only a handful of Korean developers granted construction licenses in Japan.

“The Shin Mine Solar Power Plant Project will become a solid foundation for expanding our business in Japan, which is a difficult place for foreign companies to advance into, and we will expand our overseas energy business through close cooperation with global partners while developing eco-friendly energy business in Japan,” said LG CNS executive director Ha Tae-seok.

The company also confirmed that it is eyeing development opportunities in the North American solar market and has created a Smart Energy Division that in 2017 will be tasked with pursuing such overseas ventures.