Pacifico Energy Wins Big In 129 MW Japan Solar Tender

Japan has disclosed the winners of its 12^th solar power tender. The total capacity on offer was about 129 MW. Renewable energy developer Pacifico Energy KK has said that it has emerged as the winner of more than half of the capacity that Japanese authorities have allotted.

Pacifico has said that the company grabbed a 76.8-MW project by offering a tariff of $ 0.073 for every kWh. The project which Pacifico has been allotted will be located in Yamaguchi prefecture. The solar power project will be operational in 2027.

Pacifico informed that this is the first time in the history of the Japanese solar sector that the bid price has gone below Japanese Yen 10 per kWh. This also means that this price will also not attract any levy from the government. X-Elio19 LLC, AC19 LLC, JAG Energy Co Ltd and DMM also emerged as co-winners.

Renewable Energy and Japan

According to the recently unveiled REN21’s ‘Renewables 2022 Global Status Report’ (GSR), Japan added 7.2 GW of renewable energy in 2021. Experts hold that Japan needs to expedite its renewable energy projects if it wants to realize its decarbonisation goals. Japan faces a peculiar challenge in that it cut down on nuclear power, the backbone of its grid until 2011, due to the Fukushima disaster, and has been trying ever since to balance energy needs with decarbonisation goals. It shifted big to gas, but the recent volatility in gas prices has underscored the limitations of that model. Being a land scarce nation, massive renewables especially solar is a challenge too.

Even them, Japan is mulling over plans to almost double its solar capacity target from 64 gigawatts (GW) to 108 GW by 2030. The new target has been formulated by the environment and trade ministries of Japan.

It has been held that if the solar power implementation goes on with the same speed, the country will add about 88 GW of solar energy capacity by the end of this decade. But Japan wants to implement 20 GW solar more in order to take it to 108GW. According to the plan reported, the central government and municipal buildings alone will offer 6 GW of solar capacity. Then car parking and corporate spaces will help in getting another 10 GW and the remaining 4 GW will be realized from public lands and related areas in most towns and cities of Japan.