Mitsui & Co., Ltd. ("Mitsui", Head Office: Tokyo, President and CEO: Tatsuo Yasunaga) and Nanjing Kuasolar Intelligence Technology Limited ("Kuasolar", Head Office: Jiangsu, China, President: Wang Xiaofeng), a Chinese solar power developer and operator specialized in C&I customers, will invest in three distributed solar generation projects (total generation capacity: 13MW) in China through the jointly established Mit-Kuasolar New Energy (HK) Ltd. ("Mit-Kua"). Mitsui will invest a total of ¥1.1 billion into Mit-Kua and will hold an 80% stake.
The three projects targeted by this investment are located in Guangdong, Shandong, and Zhejiang provinces respectively. Mit-Kua will place solar panels on the roofs of distribution warehouses operated by major Chinese E-commerce company JD.com and stores of the German-owned supermarket chain Metro and sell the power generated by them to the building users and power companies. Operations have already begun in three locations and the business aims to deliver solar-generated power over the next 15-20 years.
The three projects are expected to generate about 14 million kWh in the first year of operations and have the potential of reducing annual CO2 emissions by about 90,000 tons compared to power generated through an average Chinese coal fired power plant. Tackling atmospheric pollution is an urgent issue in China, and the 13th Five-Year Plan released by the Chinese government targets having power generation based on renewable energy sources account for 27% of all power generation by 2020. Through these projects, Mitsui hopes to contribute to China's shift to a low-carbon society.
The total amount of power, calculated per equity interest, generated by power generation businesses being developed by Mitsui in Japan and overseas is 10.4GW (as of March 31, 2019) and about 15% of this is from renewable energy sources. The company is working to raise this to 30% by 2030, thereby contributing to the realization of a sustainable, environmental society through environmentally-friendly power generation.
