General Electric Co will enter Japan’s solar power market with what would be the country’s biggest plant, the Nikkei reported. The 230,000-kilowatt plant would have twice the output of the biggest domestic solar projects now in the works, the Japanese business daily reported. The plant, which will start operating in 2018 in Setouchi in Okayama Prefecture, is expected to cost around 80 billion yen ($776 million), the daily reported. “Because documents about this project have been publicly disclosed by the Setouchi municipal assembly, we can confirm that if certain conditions are met, GE plans to invest in the solar power project,” GE Energy Financial Services spokesman Andy Katell told Reuters. Katell declined to comment further because the company was “still discussing details within the project team”. The Nikkei said GE would contribute about 10-20 billion yen to the project and take a majority stake in the plant’s operating company set up by Tokyo-based Kuni Umi Asset Management. GE has eight solar power plants in the United States and Europe, totaling 900,000 kilowatts, the paper reported. Solar companies are benefiting from power subsidies in Japan, which is banking on solar power to help meet the shortfall in supply after the Fukushima disaster in 2011 shattered public confidence in nuclear energy. (Reuters)