OREANDA-NEWS. Mitsui & Co. Plant Systems, Ltd. ("MPS"), a wholly owned subsidiary of Mitsui & Co., Ltd., has reached agreement on a plan developed with Tokio Marine Asset Management ("TMA") to develop mega solar power plants at eight locations in Japan. The planned development is for the third fund (Fund No. 3 / generation capacity 25MW; fund size JPN 7.7 billion) of an investment fund that allocates investments to a diverse range of domestic mega solar facilities in Japan.

Mitsui and TMA have already jointly developed two other funds: the TM Nippon Solar Energy Fund 2012 Limited Partnership (Fund No. 1) and the TM Nippon Solar Energy Fund 2013 Limited Partnership (Fund No. 2). This third fund is a continuation of a collaboration in which Mitsui, via 100% subsidiary MPS, utilizes its expertise in plant planning and development, and TMA structures and markets the investment fund.

The fund is scheduled to be established by the end of August 2014. Development and construction of the solar power plants will be rolled out from March 2015, with completion of all eight plants expected within 2015. As with the previous two funds, ownership of the plants will be transferred to the fund on completion and Mitsui's affiliates will be mandated by the fund to operate the plants.

The locations of the eight planned plants are shown on the map below.

For Fund No. 3, land will be leased from municipal bodies and the private sector, and also from individual landowners using land trusts or surface use agreements.

MPS will continue to use the feed-in tariff scheme for renewable energy in Japan, aiming to achieve consistent earnings from power sales over the long term as part of a broader policy of providing domestic institutional investors with stable earning opportunities while also promoting the adoption and expansion of renewable energy sources through the development of various power generation sources-including rooftop solar systems, biomass, and small-scale wind turbines.

Through Fund No. 1 and Fund No. 2, MPS has accumulated considerable expertise in the comprehensive management of solar power plants, including periodic maintenance, power output analysis and rapid repair, and the company has the knowledge required to optimize efficiency and maximize the life cycle of facilities in order to increase power sales revenue. Looking ahead, MPS intends to leverage this knowledge and offer power plant owners one-stop services, including location optimization, equipment maintenance, output optimization simulation and other technical support solutions.