Spread of Renewable Energy and Stimulate Regional Development

In recent years, the frequency and seriousness of abnormal weather and climate hazards around the world have increased due to climate change, including global warming, and this trend is expected to continue.

The SBI Group recognizes the risks of human suffering or the economic loss caused by climate change and is working to ubiquitize renewable energy to mitigate its impact.
The Group is also advancing initiatives to help revitalize regional economies by introducing and operating natural energy resources using regional resources, improving energy self-sufficiency rate and building sustainable communities with local production for local consumption.

Specifically, SBI Smart Energy is developing and promoting the dissemination of solar sharing (farming-type solar power generation), which generates power on farmland without discontinuing the cultivation of the land, in addition to solar power generation, micro hydropower generation and biomass (biogas) power generation.

Location: 17 Jiwari, Aozasa-cho Nakazawa, Tono-shi, Iwate
Site area: 19,281.87 ㎡
Power output: 1,396.9 kW
Cultivated crop: Hatake wasabi, a variety of green horseradish

SBI Smart Energy held a workshop on solar sharing following a request from The Tohoku Bank, Ltd., which is committed to agribusiness for regional revitalization. In this workshop, a company which had launched a solar sharing project in Shiwa-cho, Iwate, suggested a solar power generation business using abandoned farmland in Tono-shi, Iwate. This was the catalyst for the project.

A problem with solar sharing is the difficulty of procuring funds via financial institutions. This stems from the obligation to ensure stable farming practices on the farmland, in addition to the fact that the temporary diversion permit for the farmland needs to be renewed every three years (every ten years if certain requirements are met.) However, it was possible to realize this project because The Tohoku Bank, Ltd. had a track record of providing financing for solar sharing projects in Ichinoseki-shi and other areas and offered loans to this project in Tono-shi as well.
SBI Smart Energy, as the power generator, has requested local companies to build and manage the plant, while a part of the proceeds from the sale of electricity is returned to farmers and the local community under the scheme. Thus, the project is contributing to the revitalization of the regional economy.

The agricultural activities being carried out under the solar panels have been entrusted to Orbit Farm GK, an agricultural corporation from Iwate, and hatake wasabi (a species of green horseradish), which was also selected for the project in Shiwa-cho, was chosen as the crop to be cultivated. The cultivated hatake wasabi is shipped to a local food processing company and used as a raw material for producing wasabi paste and other products. Collaborative products containing this wasabi have also been developed and sold with Fukuda Pan, a private limited company from Morioka-shi.