Korean life insurance companies Kyobo Life, Heungkuk Life and Hanwha Life have acquired a 41.3 MW solar project in Kagoshima, Japan, from Solariant Japan, a wholly owned subsidiary of Solariant Inc., and its partners, including Yingli Green Energy Japan, a subsidiary of one of the largest PV module manufacturers.
More than 132,000 PV modules will be installed on the 41.3 MW solar plant and will be managed by asset management company Genkai Capital and Tokyo Energy & Systems Inc., which is partially owned by Tokyo Electric Power Co., the largest electric utility in Japan.
The plant is scheduled to be completed in the first quarter of 2017 and will generate over 50 million kWh of solar electricity annually to power more than 16,000 Japanese homes for the next two decades.
‘Solariant delivered on triple bottom line goals – environmental, social and economic – throughout the planning of the facility, which fit Kyobo Life's corporate sustainability management framework,’ says Daniel Kim and Ric Tan, both managing directors of Solariant.
The project is developed under the Japanese feed-in tariff (FIT) scheme with $0.33/kWh plus value added taxes. The energy generated by the power plant will be purchased by Kyushu Electric Power Co. for 20 years.
Kyobo Life, Hanwha Life and Heungkuk Life completed both an equity and a mezzanine debt financing transaction totaling $172 million with Shinhan Bank and Mitsubishi UFJ Leasing for senior project debt.
