Nankyu to add BESS to two Kagoshima solar plants, switch to FIP operations with Green Growth’s support

September 19, 2025
MK Solar
Both of the power plants currently operate under 36 yen per kWh FIT contracts. (Image: Nankyu)

Green Growth will help Nankyu retrofit two solar power plants in Kagoshima Prefecture with batteries, switch the projects from the feed-in-tariff (FIT) to the feed-in-premium (FIP) scheme, and operate them post-conversion, the company announced on September 16, 2025.

“Increasing curtailment and declining profitability have been major challenges with the solar power plants we own,” said Nankyu’s representative director Shinya Yamashita. Adding batteries will allow the asset’s mid-day output to be shifted to higher-value peak hours. Green Growth will manage the retrofit projects from planning and permitting to coordinating engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC). It will also aggregate the assets once operating under FIP.

According to the statement, 6.68MWh storage systems will be added to the 1.75MWAC/1.81MWDC MK Solar Onejime Tenbo Power Plant in Kinko Town and the 1.75MWAC/1.9MWDC MK Solar Ari No. 2 Power Plant in Kanoya City. Both assets are expected to begin operation under the new scheme in April 2026. They are currently under 36 yen per kWh FIT contracts valid until 2042 and 2043, respectively.

Nankyu, founded in 1971 and primarily active in agriculture, entered into renewable energy in 2012 when the FIT scheme was launched. Since then, it has built a portfolio of 75 low-voltage (sub-50kWAC) and 18 high-voltage (sub-2MWAC) solar power plants totaling about 30MW.

Green Growth began construction of a 3-hour battery system at Kagashiya’s 1.5MWAC/1.8MWDC solar power plant in Oita Prefecture under its first FIT-to-FIP conversion support contract earlier this year. When announcing the project, the company said it planned to first focus on expanding its service within Kyushu, which has been affected by curtailment the most, before expanding to other regions.

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