Orion Beer to operate mega solar plant from next April

Orion Beer to operate mega solar plant from next April

On October 31 at Nakaoji in Nago, Orion Beer held a groundbreaking ceremony for the installation of a mega solar plant.


November 1, 2013 Ryukyu Shimpo

On October 31 at Nakaoji in Nago, Orion Beer held a groundbreaking ceremony for the building of mega solar plants in Nago City, Nakijin Village and Itoman City. Orion Beer is the first food and beverage company in Okinawa to start such a solar power generation project. Three mega solar panels will begin operation on April 1, 2014. The initial investment has been about 1.8 billion yen and the company will install about 21,000 Japanese-made panels.

Orion Beer expects a total generation power of the three locations to be five megawatts and power production to be about 5.5 million kilowatts, which is equal to the annual power consumption of about 950 households. The total amount of carbon dioxide emission reduction will be about 4,700 tons, and the power generated will cover half of annual electricity used by the company’s brewery in Nago.

The groundbreaking ceremony in Nago was attended by the president of Orion Beer, Yoshio Kadekaru and other company executives, representatives of the Marubeni Corporation that will undertake the construction and other relevant parties. They all prayed for the construction to go safely. Kadekaru said, “There will be more than 2,000 tons of CO2 emission reductions in Nakaoji.”

Nago Mayor Susumu Inamine said, “Nago aims to become a recycling-oriented society. Orion Beer has its brewery in Nago so we look forward to the project helping our community further develop and prosper.” The company will sell the electricity and expects to earn two billion yen each year.

The service life of electricity generation facilities is about 20 years. Orion Beer expects to recoup the amount invested within ten years and expect the investment efficiency to be five to seven percent.

Orion Beer will install mega solar panels at ground-level in Nago and Nakijin and on the roof of a building in Itoman.

(English translation by T&CT, Megumi Chibana and Mark Ealey)

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