Guelph, Ontario: Canadian Solar Inc. announced July 18 that it had started commercial operation of 52.5 MWp of solar photovoltaic power plants in Japan in the first half of 2017.
The 52.5 MWp of plants include the 47.7 MWp Mashiki plant, the 2.4 MWp Yamagata Asahimachi plant, the 1.3 MWp Shizuoka Tashiro plant and the 1.1 MWp Saitama Shiroishi plant.
The Mashiki plant achieved commercial operation in June 2017. Powered by Canadian Solar's high-efficiency MaxPower modules, the plant is expected to generate approximately 57,000 MWh of solar electricity per year, which will be purchased by Kyushu Electric Power Co., Inc. under a 20-year feed-in-tariff contract at the rate of JPY36.0 ($0.32) per kWh.
The Yamagata Asahimachi, Shizuoka Tashiro and Saitama Shiroishi plants were connected to the grid in March 2017. Also using MaxPower modules, these plants are expected to generate around 5,429 MWh of electricity per year, which will be purchased under a 20-year feed-in-tariff contract at the rate of JPY32.0 ($0.28), JPY36.0 ($0.32) and JPY27.0 ($0.24) per kWh respectively.