J-POWER energises 30-MW Hibikinada solar park in Fukuoka Prefecture now

• J-POWER’s 29.99-MW Hibikinada solar plant in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka, starts operation, adding 40 GWh of green power yearly and advancing the utility’s Blue Mission 2050 goals.

Japanese generator Electric Power Development Co Ltd (J-POWER) has flipped the switch on the 29.99-MW Kitakyushu Hibikinada Solar Power Station, its largest photovoltaic project to date, bringing new utility-scale capacity to the country’s south-western Fukuoka Prefecture. Commercial operation began on 27 May 2025, a milestone the company says supports the national drive for greater energy self-sufficiency and decarbonisation.

The ground-mounted array sits on about 355,000 m² of reclaimed waterfront within J-POWER’s Wakamatsu Operations & General Management Office in Kitakyushu City. Repurposing company-owned industrial land avoided green-field development and enabled rapid grid interconnection via existing transmission assets. With Hibikinada online, J-POWER’s domestic PV fleet now spans two sites and 31.998 MW of installed capacity.

While J-POWER did not publish generation forecasts, a typical 15 % capacity factor for Kyushu would yield roughly 40 GWh of clean electricity a year—enough to cover the annual needs of about 9,000 Japanese households and cut roughly 18,000 tonnes of CO₂ versus the thermal mix. (Figures are estimates based on regional averages.)

Hibikinada’s commissioning also demonstrates early delivery against the utility’s “BLUE MISSION 2050” transition plan, which prioritises ramping up CO₂-free power and hydrogen while phasing down coal. The roadmap calls for a step-change in renewables, with solar joining the company’s long-standing hydro, wind and geothermal assets as it pursues carbon neutrality by mid-century

Beyond solar, J-POWER is constructing the 2-MW Oshio PV plant in Hyogo and is vetting multiple on-site PPA schemes with corporate customers. Offshore, it recently moved several gigawatts of fixed and floating wind into environmental assessment. Taken together, management says its renewables pipeline will “diversify earnings and insulate the balance sheet” as wholesale power markets tighten and green-premium contracts proliferate.

Local officials welcomed the investment, noting that Kitakyushu—once synonymous with heavy industry—now positions itself as a “green innovation port.” The city hosts Japan’s first hydrogen-import terminal and is trialling carbon-capture shipping, making Hibikinada an anchor element in a broader low-carbon hub strategy.

With transformer tests passed and the feed-in tariff secured, J-POWER’s engineers will spend the next three months on performance verification while a remote-sensing system begins feeding production data into the company’s nationwide renewables control centre in Tokyo.