Just as in the U.S., Japan has been faced with the issue of what to do with failed courses from overbuilding during a real estate boom in previous decades. A push, prompted by the Fukushima nuclear accident, to double renewable power sources by 2030 has led to the start of several solar projects on former courses, and similar plans are now reported for closed U.S. courses in New York, Minnesota and other states.
In Japan, country club memberships famously went for millions of dollars in the late 1980s, reported Quartz (qz.com), which describes itself as “a digitally native news outlet for the new global economy.”
Then, as in the U.S., too many courses were built in 1990s and 2000s during a real-estate boom, Quartz reported. And now, Japan—like the U.S.—faces the question of what to do with golf courses that have failed and been abandoned because of the resulting glut amid flattening demand
In Japan, Quartz reported, a new solution has emerged as part of a new energy strategy, formulated in the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear accident, that calls for roughly doubling the amount of renewable power sources in the country by 2030. As part of that strategy, Quartz noted, Japan is already building new solar power plants that float on water. And now, perhaps inevitably, the nation has also turned to building solar plants on old golf courses.
Last week, Quartz reported, Kyocera and its partners announced they had started construction on a 23-megawatt solar plant project located on an old golf course in the Kyoto prefecture. Scheduled to go operational in September 2017, it will generate a little over 26,000 megawatt hours per year, or enough electricity to power approximately 8,100 typical local households. The electricity will be sold to a local utility.
In late May, Quartz noted, Kyocera announced an even larger project that will begin construction next year in the Kagoshima prefecture on land that had been designated for a golf course more than 30 years ago but subsequently abandoned. The 92-megawatt plant will include more than 340,000 solar modules and is expected to generate nearly 100,000 megawatt hours per year, or enough to power about 30,500 households when it goes operational in 2018.
But Kyocera, also responsible for the floating solar plants, is already facing competition when it comes to repurposing former golf-course properties in this way, Quartz noted. Tokyo-based Pacifico Energy is building a 42-megawatt solar plant on an old golf course in the Okayama Prefecture, with help from GE Energy Financial Services. It, too, will sell electricity to a local utility when it starts operation in the second quarter of next year, if all goes to plan. And the companies are working on a 32-megawatt plant, also in Okayama, that should go live in the first quarter of next year.
Japan is not alone in pursuing the idea, Quartz reported. In the U.S., plans to replace failed and abandoned courses with solar plants are already under way in New York, Minnesota, and other states.
A photo of what one of the Japanese properties will look like after it is repurposed can be viewed at http://qz.com/445330/japan-is-building-solar-energy-plants-on-abandoned-golf-courses-and-the-idea-is-spreading/
The news of the Japanese projects generated excitement among many other publications and websites that focus on high-tech, environmental and energy-related developments, including Gizmodo (http://gizmodo.com/abandoned-golf-courses-are-being-transformed-into-solar-1716163037), Digital Trends (http://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/japan-transforming-its-disused-golf-courses-into-solar-farms/), Treehugger (http://www.treehugger.com/renewable-energy/abandoned-golf-courses-becoming-solar-farms-japan.html), and Ubergizmo (http://www.ubergizmo.com/2015/07/japan-to-transform-golf-courses-into-solar-power-farms/)
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