Construction of a 230 MW solar photovoltaic (PV) plant in Japan will be supervised by Mott MacDonald, the engineering consultancy has announced.
The $1.1 billion solar farm is a key part of Japan’s strategy to diversify its power generation portfolio. Construction will be undertaken by Toyo Engineering Corporation and Shimizu Corporation.
Mott MacDonald acted as owner’s engineer during the development phase of the project, assessing plant performance, drafting plant test procedures, supporting contract negotiations and advising on procurement. It will now supervise civil, electrical, structural and instrumentation system implementation work and review detailed plant designs against local codes and international practice for solar PV projects.
Kuni-Umi will be the largest solar plant in Japan and is due to start operating in the spring of 2019. It will sell electricity for a 20-year period to the Chugoku Electric Power Company and will include a new 110kV, 16km underground transmission line which will travel through a residential area and cross several major rivers.
Philip Napier-Moore, Mott MacDonald’s project director, said: "In Japan, Mott MacDonald is working with international investors on 23 solar plants totalling 720 MW of power. We’re seeing a trend of increasing scale, of which this project represents the current culmination."
