Pacifico starts building 42 MW in Japan

China’s Trina Solar is supplying the PV modules, while Toyo Engineering — based in Japan's Chiba prefecture — has been tapped to handle EPC duties, according to an online statement. The project is being built on 50 hectares of land in Iwaki, Fukushima prefecture.

The installation is the company’s second solar project in Japan’s Tohoku region, which was devastated by an earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident in March 2011. The 42 MW installation will be situated to the south of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, near the port from which a consortium under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) launched an ambitious offshore floating wind pilot project in late 2013.

Pacifico Energy expects to the project to generate about 48 GWh of electricity per year following its completion in August 2019. All electricity will be sold to regional utility Tohoku Electric Power.

The Tokyo-based PV developer, which was established in 2012, is now building two other PV arrays in Japan. It started constructing a 96 MW plant in Hosoe, Miyazaki prefecture, in March 2015 and began building a 257 MW project in Okayama prefecture in April of this year. It currently operates 131.2 MW of PV capacity in the country at three sites.