Kyocera Reveals Floating Solar Plant

We first took a gander at Kyocera’s idea to come up with a mega solar plant in October last year at CEATEC 2014, and it certainly made plenty of sense. After all, close to two-thirds of the world’s surface is covered with water, and at the rate global warming is going these days, there will be less and less land mass in due time. Why not place solar panels that float on the high seas rather than on land? This is exactly what Kyocera set out to do, and we are pleased to announce that the construction of two floating mega-solar power plants at Nishihira Pond and Higashihira Pond in Kato City, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan, are now complete.

These solar power plants were inaugurated late last month, where they are touted to generate up to an estimated 3,300 megawatt hours (MWh) each year in total, which is more than enough electricity to power up to 920 typical households. The Nishihira Pond has an output of 1.7MW; whereas the Higashihira Pond features an output of 1.2MW. As for the expected annual power
generation, that stands at approximately 3,300MWh each year, and all the electricity generated are touted to be sold to the local utility (The Kansai Electric Power Co., Inc.) via Japan’s feed-in-tariff system.

Do you think that other countries are ready to follow suit? [Press Release]

Edwin Kee
Categories: Green
Tags: Japan, kyocera, Solar