Spanish developer X-Elio has been awarded 15MW of solar PV capacity in Japan’s first feed-in premium (FiP) auction.
The project will be located in the Yamaguchi prefecture, is estimated to be operational by the end of 2024 and will have a contract duration of 20 years.
The first FiP was launched by the Japanese Ministry of Economy and Trade Industry with 13 projects presenting a bid which awarded a total of 128.94MW between five bidders.
This marks the 12th auction in Japan and the first one of 2022, with the FiP aimed at projects with an output of 1MW or more and a bidding price limit of ¥10/kWh (US$0.07/kWh).
X-Elio was awarded the lowest bidding price with ¥9.85/kWh, with only five cents of difference with the highest bidder.
Mirko Molinari, CCO at X-Elio, said: “X-Elio is committed to support Japan’s ambitions to make renewable energy a major power source within the local energy mix and we are delighted to have been awarded by this new important market mechanism.”
X-Elio has been present in Japan since 2012 and has so far developed 380MW of renewable projects.
