NH Financial to buy $20 mn stake in Japan's solar farm

South Korea's NongHyup Financial Group, or NH Financial Group, has acquired a stake in a solar power plant in Japan from Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) for 25 billion won ($22 million), according to a local newspaper report.

An infrastructure fund pooled by NH Financial's units will buy a 35 percent stake in the solar farm located in Chitose, Hokkaido, the Maeil Business Newspaper reported last week. The facility, a majority owned and run by power utility KEPCO, is Japan’s first energy storage system (ESS)-linked solar power generation facility.

The fund is run by NH-Amundi Asset Management Co., a joint venture between NH Financial under the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation and Amundi, a French asset management group.

The investment is part of NH Financial's group-wide push to incorporate the environmental, social and governance themes into its portfolio. Recently, the group launched a green new deal infrastructure ESG fund, to which NH units had committed undisclosed amounts of capital, to invest in renewable energy.

KEPCO has been running the facility under a 20-year contract since it became operational in 2017. After the stake sale, it will remain the largest shareholder with over half of the power generation facility, according to the daily.

KEPCO had led the 113 billion won construction of the Chitose-based solar power plant, which was its first overseas solar power project. LS Electric Co., a South Korean renewable energy plant builder, was in charge of the construction. 

On the land measuring 1 million square meters, it consists of about 130,000 solar panels that generate 28 megawatts of solar electricity enough to power 10,000 households per year, as well as 13.7-megawatt-hour ESS facilities. 

The power generated by the plant is sold to Hokkaido Electric Power Co. under a 20-year contract at 40 yen per kilowatt-hour.

Yeonhee Kim edited this article.