Japanese solar plant set for tsunami-damaged site

TOKYO, April 10 (UPI) -- Japanese conglomerate Marubeni Corp. said Thursday it started work on a solar power facility situated on land spoiled by the 2011 tsunami.

Marubeni said it started construction at a solar power plant in Iwanuma city in the Tokoku region of Japan. The company said the plant's construction is part of an effort to reclaim land spoiled by the 2011 tsunami.

The site of the plant is on land damaged by sea salt to the extent that it was unsuitable for agricultural use, Marubeni said.

Japan began looking to add diversity to its energy mix when the tsunami triggered a meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Billed as the largest facility of its kind for the region, the company said the plant's capacity of 28.3 megawatts is enough to meet the annual electricity demands of 8,000 households.

Electricity from the plant will be feed into the national grid according to a 20-year purchase agreement. Marubeni said the facility should be completed by April 2015.