wiredinUSA December 2012

INDEX

Forest of Light project

The Solomon Islands’ minister for finance and treasury, Rick Hou, has signed a financing agreement with Asian Development Bank (ADB) and a project agreement with Solomons Oceanic Cable Company (SOC) for a submarine cable project development. The cable, connecting the Solomon Islands to an existingcablenetworkbetweenGuamand Sydney, is expected to boost economic development of the Solomon Islands. Reported on the Solomon Star news site, Mr Hou said that the submarine cable will improve internet connections, and that it has full government support. Initially, the cable will be installed across two provinces, the Malaita and Western Provinces. The SOC representatives said that the implementation process will start as soon as the financing agreement completes, and that the implementation is expected to take between 6 and 12 months. The project will be funded by the Asian Development Fund loan and grant funds,with commercial financing from ADB and equity brought in by SOC. Solomon Islands cable

Japanese business investment company Sumitomo Corporation, with six private companies, is primed to begin work on the Osaka Hikari-no-mori project (the Osaka Forest of Light project) in Osaka, Japan. The 10MW project will be located over the Hokko landfill site in Yumeshima, Osaka city. The waste landfill contains ash from household trash combustion. The mega-solar power generation project, expected to commence operations in October 2013, will be implemented with public-private partnership. The participating companies in the consortium Solar-power Group Share include Jupiter Telecommunications, Sumitomo Electric Industries, Daihen Corporation, Hitachi Zosen Corporation, Rengo and NTT Facilities. The city of Osaka sought proposals for effective utilization of the site in 2010, following which Sumitomo and Sumitomo Mitsui Finance & Leasing jointly proposed the project with contributions from the consortium. Summit Energy Corporation has been named as management contractor for the facility. Once operational, Kansai Electric Power will utilize the power generated from the plant under the feed-in tariff system.

wiredInUSA - December 2012 ASIA / AFRICA NEWS

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