Etrion Corporation (Etrion) has completely construction on the 24.7MW Shizukuishi solar power plant in Iwate Prefecture in northeastern Japan in partner with its EPC contractor, Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation (HHT). The project started feeding back the electricity to the grid under a 40 yen/kWh feed-in tariff rate.
The Shizukuishi solar project is expected to produce approximately 25.6GWh of solar electricity per year, enough to power around 7,300 local homes. The electricity generated from this project will be sold to Tohoku Electric Power Co. under a 20-year fixed-price take-or-pay power purchase agreement at 40 yen per kWh
Etrion owns 87% of the project, and HHT owns the remaining equity interest. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank Limited (SMTB) provided both construction financing and an attractive 18-year term loan facility similar to traditional project finance.
In Japan, Etrion currently has the 9.3 MW Mito project and the 24.7 MW Shizukuishi project operational, and has been constructing the 9.5MW Aomori solar project since this June. All the three projects are developed, built, financed, owned and operated by Etrion in partnership with HHT and SMTB. In addition, Etrion has two solar projects, totaling 66MW, under development and an additional 200MW of pipeline in Japan.
Marco Antonio Northland, Etrion’s CEO, commented, “I am delighted with the progress we are making in Japan and the strong collaboration we have with our local partners. We are fully dedicated to this market and are confident that we can advance our more than 250 MW of backlog and pipeline to be ready to build over the next couple of years. Thank you to everyone who worked so hard on making the Shizukuishi solar park a reality”.