Kyocera announces $89M deal to provide solar energy to Japan’s farming community

Japan-based electronics manufacturer Kyocera announced today it is supplying approximately 30 megawatts of solar power to agricultural facilities across Japan in a deal worth 8.5 billion yen ($89 million).

Kyocera will supply, engineer, construct, and maintain 30MW of solar power generating systems to the project implemented by the National Federation of Agriculture Cooperative Associations (Zen-Noh) and the Mitsubishi Corporation.

The goal of the project is to reinvigorate the agriculture sector and local farming towns and to further spread renewable energy use. There are almost 1.5 million farmers in Japan, and Zen-Noh and Mitsubishi are planning to build one of the country’s largest solar power projects by installing 200MW of solar power systems on farmers’ and Zen-Noh facilities.

Mitsubishi and Kyocera have jointly established the JAMC Solar Energy Company to operate the project and will sell the power generated from the installations to regional utility power companies under Japan’s feed-in tariff program. The objective of the incentive program that began a year ago as a result of the nuclear disaster in Japan in March 2011 is to diversify energy resources, with solar power being the main source of alternative energy.

Kyocera will provide around 124,000 solar modules to the project to be split between 80 locations. Through this project, Kyocera hopes to promote the use of renewable energy and to contribute to local communities.

Kyocera has expanded its solar energy business to include production, supply, installation, construction and operation of large-scale solar power plants and has been researching solar energy since 1975.

Image via Kyocera