Toshiba and Chubu Electric Power Collaborating on new Power Plant
On 19 August, Toshiba Co. and Chubu Electric Power Co. announced the development of a solar power plant capable of supplying power for about 2000 residential homes. They are now accepting orders for construction of a power generation plant capable of producing 7500 kilowatts of power, all of which, including construction, generators and machinery, has been contracted in one complete order.
The entire order is believed to be on the order of 40 billion yen (~$420 million USD). With the new emphasis on solar power generation plants, this is the first time Toshiba has been involved in building such a large plant. It is planned that the new plant, to be built in Aichi Prefecture’s Taketoyo-cho, will be completed and producing power by the fall of 2011.
The power plant, using Solar panels built by Sharp Corp., in conjunction with Toshiba’s high performance AC/DC transformers, will be connected to the energy grid, transformer stations, and other power plants in a completely interconnected, domestic control system.
Next January, Toshiba will establish a new specialized department, demonstrating their seriousness in entering the development of solar power generation plants. Toshiba is currently advancing discussions with power utilities other than Chubu Electric Corp, and aims at having sales in excess of 2 trillion yen ($2.1 billion USD) within 15 years.