New Japanese solar power plant leaves room for mushrooms

• 6 years ago (2017-09-05)
• David Flin

Asia 846 Solar 242

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In 2013, the Japanese Government partially relaxed restrictions on the use of farmland for solar power generation, provided it was simultaneously used for agriculture.

Sustainergy, a Tokyo-based renewable energy startup, Hitachi Capital, and house construction company Daiwa House Industry plan to generate a combined 4 MW at two locations in north-eastern Japan. The 2 MW produced at each plant represents the largest output of any such facility in the country.

The output will be sold to Tohoku Electric Power, and could fetch an annual $1.3 million. The land beneath the panels is expected to yield an annual 40 tons of cloud-ear mushrooms, a crop that requires little sunlight. Most commercially available cloud-ear mushrooms in Japan are imported from China, and it is thought that there will be a big demand for domestically grown mushrooms.

A total of $11 million will be spent of setting up the facilities in Miyagi Prefecture, which are set to come online at the end of September. If the project goes well, the concept will be extended to farmers and utilities across the country. Hitachi Capital will provide the panels and equipment to farmers at no initial cost, and Daiwa House will provide construction and maintenance. The business model would remove hurdles farmers currently face when trying to enter commercial solar power generation.