Japan has historically been at the forefront of nuclear power, with more nuclear power plants and a higher nuclear energy output than almost any other country. However, ever since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011, the country has decided to wean itself off of nuclear power in favor of other alternative energy sources, the most promising of which is solar energy.
The island nation has a land area of around 146,000 square miles, which is roughly the size of the state of Montana. However, whereas Montana is only home to about 1 million people, Japan is home to more than 128 million. With all of those people squeezed together there’s not very much space available, so where can Japan’s ambitious solar energy projects be built? Well, according to Kyocera and Century Tokyo Leasing, they can be built on the water.
The two companies have joined forces to build a couple of massive solar power islands which will float on two reservoirs and generate somewhere around 2.9 megawatts of clean energy. The combined capacity of the two power plants would be enough to power anywhere between 483 and 967 American households. Work on this project is set to begin in September, with a target finish date of April 2015.
One of the “water-mounted mega solar power plants” will float on the surface of Nishihira pond and will generate about 1.7 megawatts of energy, which would make it the world’s largest floating solar plant. The second floating solar power plant will be built on Dongping pond, and will generate about 1.2 megawatts of clean energy.
Read more about the story at The Ecologist.
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