OREANDA-NEWS. June 15, 2012. Osaka Gas Co., Ltd., (“Osaka Gas”), Mitsubishi Corporation (“MC”), and Sharp Corporation (“Sharp”) today agreed to purchase a large-scale solar power generation project (total of nine sites; total generating capacity: approx. 100,000 kW) in the Province of Ontario, Canada, being developed by Recurrent Energy, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sharp. The three companies also agreed to jointly operate this project in the future.

Osaka Gas, MC, and Sharp will invest in this project in the proportion of Osaka Gas: 44.95%, MC: 44.95%, and Sharp: 10.1%, through a company to be jointly established in Canada. Commercial operations are expected to begin at the end of this year and gradually expand through the end of 2013.

In 2009, the Government of the Province of Ontario instituted a clean energy plan and has been working proactively to shift from coal-fired power generation that has a heavy environmental impact, to power generation that makes full use of cleaner energy sources such as wind, solar, and bio-energy. Under the clean energy feed-in tariff system being introduced in the province based on this plan, this project will sell the electricity produced to the Ontario Power Authority at the rate of 0.443 Canadian dollars per kilowatt hour (approx. 35 yen/kWh) over a 20-year period.

By deepening their knowledge for the deployment of large-scale solar power projects in Japan and abroad through this project, Osaka Gas, MC, and Sharp will contribute to the achievement of a low-carbon society through the development and widespread use of environmentally friendly renewable energy.