Sian Crampsie
Construction of the world’s largest floating solar power plant has started on a reservoir in Japan.
Kyocera TCL Solar is building the 13.7 MW PV facility on the Yamakura Dam reservoir in Chiba prefecture and says that it will start operating by the end of March 2018.
The solar plant will comprise 51 000 Kyocera solar modules installed over a fresh water surface area of 180 000 m2. The project was initiated in October 2014, when the Public Enterprises Agency of Chiba prefecture publicly sought companies to construct and operate a floating solar power plant to help reduce environmental impact.
The project will be Kyocera’s fourth floating solar plant. The firm says that Japan is a key market for the technology because of pressure on available land space, strong demand for renewable energy and an abundance of suitable tracts of water.
