The Japan Experience: The Earthquake that Gave a Jolt to Solar Energy

There was very little good that came out of the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan. The disaster did, however, cause Japan to rethink its dependency on nuclear power and caused a significant shift in the energy strategy for the country.

Japan quickly identified renewable energy as the solution to a sustainable and reliable energy supply. Japan has become a major player in the solar industry, according to Bloomberg Business, with plans this year to install up to 12.7 gigawatts of solar power. Japan is an archipelago, which the National Geographic defines as a “group of islands closely scattered in a body of water”, and is occupied by hundreds of millions of people which does not leave an abundance of space to install solar panels. Recently, however, Japanese electronics manufacturer Kyocera has identified more than one method of efficiently utilizing space in and around the country’s land to install as many solar panels as possible in otherwise dead space.

In June 2015, The Huffington Post reported that Kyocera had built two massive solar power stations that were placed on waterproof structures floating on two separate reservoirs in Kato City, Japan. The article described the systems as containing close to 9,000 solar panels and placed on waterproof structures made of polyethylene. The systems are claimed to be weather-proof and earthquake-proof, having withstood controlled hurricane wind tests. Each year the systems will produce an expected 3,300 megawatt hours of solar energy. The systems would not take up scarce land space and would even generate electricity more efficiently according to the Huffington Post due to the “cooling off effect of the water underneath the system.”