TOKYO: Deutsche Bank plans to lend about $1 billion for Japanese solar projects, joining Goldman Sachs in funding cleaner energy as the government struggles to restart nuclear power plants after the Fukushima disaster.

The bank is ready to provide financing for three to six projects in the next 12 to 18 months, said Hans Van Der Sande, director of Deutsche Bank’s structured products group at its Tokyo branch.

The Frankfurt-based lender agreed last month to provide a 11.1 billion yen ($109 million) loan for a solar power project on a former golf course north of Tokyo to be operated by a unit of Spain’s Gestamp Renewables Corp.

Japan may add the most solar power capacity in the world this year, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, as a two- year-old incentive program attracted investors including Goldman Sachs.

Even so, renewable energy accounts for less than 11 percent of its total production, compared with 31 percent in Germany, leaving the nation reliant on fuel imports after the closure of all of its atomic reactors and contributing to 23 straight months of trade deficits.

Deutsche Bank declined to disclose the interest rates for the solar loans.