19 prefectures to join solar power project led by Softbank (JAPAN)

TOKYO —

A total of 19 prefectures will take part in a project led by telecom company Softbank Corp to build solar power plants and reduce Japan’s dependence on nuclear energy, governors of the prefectures and Softbank President Masayoshi Son said Wednesday.

Softbank and the prefectures, including Hokkaido, Saitama and Nagasaki, will jointly set up a council for promoting the use of renewable energy, likely to coincide with a meeting of the National Governors’ Association to be held around July 10, they said at a press conference in Tokyo.

The prefectures joining the coalition will provide idle farmland and land where cultivation has been abandoned so that they could be used for construction of large-scale solar power plants and other such facilities.

The move comes after Softbank’s Son unveiled last week an 80 billion yen project to build around 10 large-scale solar power plants in Japan, offering to shoulder most of the construction costs.

http://www.japantoday.com/category/technology/view/19-prefectures-to-join-solar-power-project-led-by-softbank