General Electric Co. is poised to take over the running of Japan's largest solar power plant once it is finished, sources close to the project said.
GE's entry is expected to heat up competition in the domestic solar power market. GE runs solar plants in the United States and Europe, and the Japanese plant will rival the largest plants in the world.
Situated on a 500-hectare former salt field in Setouchi, Okayama Prefecture, the ¥80 billion plant is expected to go online in 2018.
It is expected to have a capacity of 230,000 kilowatts, more than double SoftBank Corp.'s 111,000-kw plant in Hokkaido, which is slated to go online in 2015.
According to officials in Setouchi, GE plans to acquire a majority stake in the firm leading the project, which was originally set up by a Tokyo-based asset management federation including Goldman Sachs Group Inc., IBM Japan Ltd. and others.