Solar Power to Support Immigration to Countryside: Miyoshi, Hiroshima

Blue River, a de facto not-for-profit company in Aoga town, Miyoshi city of Hiroshima prefecture, has recently installed a solar facility in the same town. And it will start selling electricity to Chugoku Electric Power on 20th.

The company is invested by nine local volunteers, who have a sense of crisis about depopulation in the rural area. So it has provided residences for a rent of relatively low-cost to welcome new immigrants with young children.

But it has been a headache for the company that the residences are not always full of tenants and that the balance tends to be a minus.

Therefore the company decided to install the solar facility with 164 panels for 1.5 million JPY. The output is 50 kW, and the annual generation 49 thousand kWh. The annual profit is estimated to be 2 million JPY.

Chugoku Shimbun 2013/05/17
http://www.chugoku-np.co.jp/News/Tn201305170025.html