Japan's Hokkaido Railway Co breaks ground on 1.4-MW PV plant

Japan's Hokkaido Railway Co announced on Thursday it started construction of a 1.4-MW photovoltaic (PV) plant at its unused Sorachi driving centre site.

The solar facility, part of the company's land utilisation strategy, will require around JPY 400 million (USD 3.7m/EUR 3.3m) in investments. It has a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with local utility Hokkaido Electric Power Company (TYO:9509) at a tariff of JPY 18 per kWh.

Hokkaido Railway foresees a production capacity of more than 2.13 million kWh, enough to meet the annual electricity demand of 481 local homes.

Spread over an area of 31,900 sq m (343,368 sq ft), the PV park is scheduled to be completed in December 2019 with commercial operation estimated to start in the spring of 2020, the railway company noted.

(JPY 100 = USD 0.92/EUR 0.82)

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