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Japan has been focusing on finding spaces well-suited for solar power that might otherwise go unused. Recently, solar power company Kyocera announced that it was building huge floating solar power plants that covered inland bodies of water like reservoirs, projects that both provided clean energy and were beneficial to the reservoirs themselves.
Now, the company has turned their attention to the several abandoned golf courses in the country, with plans to build large solar farms on the land. These golf courses feature large amounts of unused open land, few shade trees and high sun exposure -- all of the things you need for a productive solar farm.
The company has just started construction on a 23-MW solar power plant on an abandoned course in Kyoto Prefecture. It will generate an estimated 26,312 MWh per year -- enough to power 8,100 local homes. The company calculated that number based on the average household electricity use of 3,254.4 kWh per year.
When finished, it will be the largest solar power installation in Kyoto Prefecture.
How much power could be generated by covering parking lots with solar panels?
Kyocera and Century Tokyo Leasing, along with two other companies, also announced recently that they are developing a 92MW solar power plant at a site in Kagoshima Prefecture. The site was originally designated as a golf course over 30 years ago and then was abandoned.
In the bigger picture, are we looking at a solar uptake of abandoned golf courses? Are we to see more large-scale solar projects go up on golf-course land otherwise going unused? The press release said, "In the United States, several cities in states such as Florida, Utah, Kansas and Minnesota are having public discussion and considering proposals on how best to repurpose closed golf courses."
Advantages for groups with solar interests are evident in courses characterized by expansive land mass, high sun exposure and a low concentration of shade trees.
In Japan, embracing solar energy is easier said than done, however. PV-Tech, which focuses on news about the solar PV supply chain, put this in perspective. The site noted Japan's shortage of land for large-scale solar initiatives, with the government "now offering incentives to developers building PV plants on landfill sites" while at the same time showing reluctance to approve plant development on agricultural land.
Courses left idle are now under analysis for repurposing or redevelopment, said Kyocera. The glut is a reflection of golf-property overdevelopment, in the real estate boom of the 1990s and 2000s.
Andy Colthorpe in PV-Tech said earlier this month, "A legacy of Japan's early 90s boom years, the country's obsession with golf led to the development of many golf courses that have since proven economically unsustainable."
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 07 2015, @01:14AM
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Tuesday July 07 2015, @03:20AM
Actually back in the 80's, Many businessmen from Japan would come to the U.S. to play famous courses like Pebble Beach, Torrey Pines, Cypress Point, Riviera, and other great courses, not only in California, but all over the mainland US but also Hawaii. They could spend two to three weeks playing a different course every day for less than the green fees for one round on Japan's best courses.
At the same time they were paying outrageous prices for old persimmon wood drivers, 3-woods, and 5-woods.
The Musk/Trump interview appears to have been hacked, but not a DDOS hack...more like A Distributed Denial of Reality.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday July 07 2015, @10:31AM
Japan is also quite fad driven. Golf was the big sport in the 80's, then suddenly in the 90's it switched to soccer. Overnight there were soccer leagues and everyone was crazy about playing soccer. I was an analyst for Japanese equities at the time of the inflection point and all the trade publications were talking about it. The difference is once they move on from soccer they can easily repurpose the soccer field to something else. Golf courses are rather different, so it's good they're covering them with solar panels now.
Washington DC delenda est.