Three firms planning massive solar power complex in Aichi

Mitsui Chemicals Inc., Toshiba Corp. and Mitsui & Co. plan to jointly build a 50,000-kw solar power plant that would be the biggest in Japan, sources said Saturday.

They intend to construct the ¥20 billion solar facility on 800,000 sq. meters of land owned by Mitsui Chemicals in Tahara, Aichi Prefecture, and sell electricity to Chubu Electric Power Co. from 2013, the sources said.

Roughly 90 percent of the investment is expected to be funded by low-cost loans the companies will seek from the government-affiliated Development Bank of Japan, the sources said.

The companies have decided to go ahead with the project because the Diet is set to approve a bill obliging utilities to buy renewable energy, including solar power, from third parties.

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