SoftBank unit completes 32.3 MW in Japan

The project — which was built on a 36.2-hectare plot of land — will annually generate enough electricity to supply power to roughly 9,880 homes, according to an online statement. Mitsubishi UFJ Leasing has taken a 50% stake in the installation, with SB Energy holding the remaining share. Beyond outlining the stake split, they did not disclose the terms of the arrangement.

The Kagoshima array is the third major project that SB Energy and Mitsubishi UFJ Leasing have jointly announced this year. In March, they bought an operational 29.8 MW solar array in the city of Tomakomai, on the island of Hokkaido, from Tokyo-based conglomerate Marubeni.

And this month, SB Energy and Mitsubishi UFJ Leasing started building a 64.6 MW array with a 17.5 MWh lithium-ion storage battery in the town of Abira, on the northern island of Hokkaido. The project — situated on a 90-hectare plot of land — will annually generate enough electricity for about 19,850 homes when it is completed in fiscal 2020.

However, SB Energy collaborates with a range of other Japanese partners on solar development. In February, it wrapped up construction of a 43.4 MW solar array in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka prefecture, with Mitsui & Co.

It has also started working with non-Japanese partners on projects in the country. In April, SB Energy and the local unit of Chicago-based developer Invenergy announced plans to install 20.9 MW of solar capacity at two locations in Fukushima and Nagano prefectures. They will build the projects — to be completed in fiscal 2018 — as part of a new partnership in the country.

And in recent months, units of SB Energy have started completed projects in foreign markets on behalf of SoftBank. In April, for example, an SB Energy venture with New Delhi-based conglomerate Bharti Enterprises and Taiwanese contract manufacturer Foxconn finished building 350 MW in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.

By March of this year, SB Energy had roughly 375 MW of renewable energy capacity in operation in Japan, up from 308 MW in June 2016. The lion’s share of that capacity was solar.