Japan’s innovative solution to energy /space crisis: The world’s largest floating solar power plant

[JayMandan]

If you're from southern California going to Las Vegas, you will never miss this massive solar thermal plant.

 

[Jlaw]

Space is a big problem in Japan. The small, mountainous island nation has limited flat ground for building, and what there is comes at a premium.

Its other huge issue is energy, which the country struggles to produce and pays to import enough to satisfy its needs.

One solution: massive solar farms floating on bodies of water. This week, Kyocera Corporation and Century Tokyo Leasing Corporation announced they had begun work on what they say will be the world’s largest floating solar installation by the amount of power produced.

The companies plan to create a giant geometric block of 51,000 individual solar modules floating on the surface of the Yamakura Dam reservoir in Chiba Prefecture, some 70km (43 miles) from Tokyo. They’ll cover an area of 180,000 square meters. And once they’re up and running in 2018, they’ll have a capacity of 13.7 megawatts.

The company behind the Yamakura project has already completed much smaller projects, like this one in Hyogo Prefecture around Kobe.

Japan lack space thus this makes some sense. Only issue is 13.7 megawatts can only power 2132 homes on average.
I believe a floating nuclear power float station make more sense.