juwi Shizen Energy completes third solar park in Japan

WORRSTADT, GERMANY: juwi Shizen Energy has realized its third solar project in Japan - the land of the rising sun. In Ozu on Kyushu island the joint venture between the German juwi group and the Japanese company Shizen Energy Inc. has recently commissioned a free field solar park.

The utility scale solar power plant has an installed capacity of 1.1 megawatt (MW). Every year the 4,480 solar modules feed 1,375,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) of climate-friendly electricity into the local grid. This equals the electricity consumption of more than 380 local households. The project in Ozu has been built for a local company. The company got to know juwi Shizen Energy through the customer for the joint venture's first two Japanese projects.

Quality convinces: A local Japanese company thought along the same lines when asking juwi Shizen Engery to develop their solar park in Ozu in the prefecture of Kumamoto. "Our customer for the first juwi project in Japan was very satisfied with our work. He recommended us to other local investors - which is how we won the project in Ozu" Juan Mas Valor, Managing Director, and Masaya Hasegawa, Representative Director of juwi Shizen Energy, jointly explain.

Before construction works could begin, certain obstacles had to be overcome - the land had previously been used as a pig farm but has been deserted for over 30 years and therefore had to be cleared of vegetation. In addition, the project team unexpectedly hit upon concrete foundations of the former pig stalls as there were no plans of the previous farm. They could, however, be reused as new foundations for the mounting system. Since then construction has been progressing rapidly: The solar plant has been connected to grid as scheduled and is now producing climate-friendly electricity.

For juwi Shizen Energy it is the third solar project on Kyushu island. The company's first project, a solar power plant with an installed capacity of one MW, already produces clean electricity for 300 local households.

juwi Shizen Energy also constructed utility scale roof top photovoltaic (PV) systems. In Kumamoto the company recently connected the rooftop PV plant „Bear 2" to the grid. The system consists of 4,088 solar modules and was erected within only four weeks. It has a capacity of one MW and produces one million kilowatt hours (kWh) of clean energy per year; enough to supply 300 local households. The PV plant was built for the same investor who previously financed juwi Shizen's first solar project.