Kansai Electric's 10MW solar system in Osaka starts operations

Kansai Electric Power has started commercial operation of its 10MW PV plant in Sakai City, Osaka.

The plant, which started partial operation in October 2010, is one of the largest in Japan and generates enough electricity to power around 3,000 homes.

The company also revealed plans to build an 18MW plant alongside Sharp, which will also be situated in Sakai City. A construction start date for the project has yet to be decided.

Kansai’s projects add further momentum to the revival of large-scale solar in Japan. Since March’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, calls for investment in utility-scale solar and other renewables have been growing ever louder. In August, Mitsui-Toshiba announced they would be building a 50MW PV plant in the Aichi Prefecture and other MW-scale systems have been proposed for the cities of Kawasaki (20MW) and Sakai (28MW).