This project involved the construction of a renewable energy power plant as part of the Kesen Wide-Area Environmental Future City Initiative. As project manager, Index Consulting assisted in the selection of the site and the selection of the operator.
Client issues.
As Kesen's 2 cities and 1 town proceeded with post-disaster reconstruction, in order to realize a sustainable energy supply in the event of a disaster, they made a plan to cover 30% of the electricity consumed by the 2 cities and 1 town with renewable energy. In the process, it was decided to use solar power generation, and a ranch in Goyayama was chosen as a candidate site because of its sunlight and distance from power lines.
However, the ranch is used as farmland, and due to the restrictions of the Agricultural Land Law, it was not possible to run a power generation business. It is also located on a slope, making it difficult to install solar panels. In order to realize an environmental future city with renewable energy at its core, it was essential to overcome these two problems.
Index Consulting Solutions.
Concerning the conversion of agricultural land to other uses requires consultation with the local city and prefecture, which usually takes some time. In this case, it is part of the earthquake reconstruction process, and the mega solar power plant at Goyasan is a symbol of the Environmental Future City. We explained the Kesen wide-area environmental future city concept, the realization of a sustainable energy supply, and our contribution to the local community to the city, prefecture, and JA, which owns the land, and were able to obtain their full cooperation.
After that, the East Japan Future City Study Group, which was acting as the secretariat, conducted a competitive bidding and selected Maeda Corporation as the operator, and the Goyayama Solar Power Generation Godo Kaisha was launched. In order to return the profits from the sale of electricity to the local community, the company also invited local residents to make small investments.
For the installation of the solar panels, it was possible to build on a slope and install them on level ground, but in accordance with our policy of building an environmentally friendly solar power plant that would place as little burden on the environment as possible, we decided to install the power plant using the terrain as it was. The actual construction was a series of trial and error, but we overcame this by devising new construction methods. As a result, a mega solar power plant with an output of 18 megawatts was completed in August 2015.
EXPERT
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Ken HASHIZUME
Index Senior Analyst
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