Japan’s government plans to invest $2.7 billion into its Fukushima prefecture, where the catastrophic 2011 nuclear plant meltdown occurred, to turn the area into a renewable energy hub, Japanese media reported on Sunday.
According to the Nikkei news outlet, Japan’s government is planning on building 10 wind-power stations and 11 solar-power stations to generate and transmit up to 600 megawatts of power to Tokyo and the surrounding areas.
The Development Bank of Japan and Mizuho Bank are among the institutions planning on providing funding for the project by 2023, the outlet said.
The aim of the project is to help revive the Fukushima prefecture’s economy by generating power on farmland that has become unusable since the disaster.
The accident at the Fukushima plant in March 2011 was triggered by a 46-feet tsunami that hit Japan following a 9.0-magnitude offshore earthquake. The meltdown at three out of the four units and hydrogen-air explosions, which were provoked by a cooling systems failure, led to the leakage of radioactive materials and the shutdown of the plant.
Japan plans to invest $2.7Bln to build renewable energy hub in Fukushima prefecture
