Japan Is Pushing Solar Energy By Turning Their Abandoned Golf Courses Into Solar Power Plants

Since 2010, it seems there’s been a boom in solar energy. Not only is it being considered as a viable energy option that may replace both coal and nuclear energy, but it is being innovated to improve people’s lives. An example of the former can be seen in Peru’s initiative to give its poorest residents electricity through free solar panels and Bangladesh for attempting to become the first country to run 100 percent on solar power. As for the latter, distilling of water was made more practical with solar panels while making electrical bikes run off the grid.

If pushing solar energy keeps up, it will surely become a stable part of people’s lives. And now, Japan is helping with that push by coming up with the ingenious plan to build solar energy plants on abandoned golf courses. Apparently, the idea is so popular, it is spreading like wildfire.

The idea for turning abandoned golf courses into solar energy plants was first thought up by the Kyocera Corporation. As given in an official statement on their company’s global website, company president Goro Yamaguchi announced Kyocera TCL Solar LLC will join in a joint venture with Century Tokyo Leasing Corporation to construct a 23-megawatt solar energy plant on an abandoned golf course in the Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. It is estimated to generate 26,312 megawatt hours a year. That is enough electricity to power about 8,100 households in the area.

Kyocera Corporation’s idea is actually valuable for Japan’s overall strategy to roughly double their renewable power sources by 2030 as a result of the Fukushima nuclear power plant incident. Because of said strategy, other companies are jumping into the fray to get a piece of that solar energy doubling profit, as reported by Quartz. Pacifico Energy is following Kyocera Corporation’s lead in building a 42-megawatt solar energy plant on an old golf course in the Okayama Prefecture with help from GE Energy Financial Services.

Of course some in the green community would question why such an idea is not being implemented in the United States. Fortunately for them, it is as plans to replace golf courses about to go out of business are under way in New York, Minnesota, and other states too.

[Image via Kyocera]