Kagoshima Nanatsujima Mega Solar Power Plant
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The is a
solar power Solar power is the conversion of energy from sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV) or indirectly using concentrated solar power. Photovoltaic cells convert light into an electric current using the photovolta ...
generating station located in
Kagoshima , abbreviated to , is the capital city of Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. Located at the southwestern tip of the island of Kyushu, Kagoshima is the largest city in the prefecture by some margin. It has been nicknamed the "Naples of the Eastern wor ...
, Japan. It sits on a platform of reclaimed land on the coast of
Kagoshima Bay also known as Kinkō Bay, is a deep inlet of the East China Sea on the coast of Japan.''Merriam Webster's Geographical Dictionary, Third Edition'', p. 562. Kagoshima Bay is on the south coast of the island of Kyūshū. The port city of Kag ...
. With a capacity of 70 MW, it was formerly the largest solar plant in Japan.


History

The site at Nanatsujima formerly consisted of seven islands, but decades ago a large, flat platform was
reclaimed Land reclamation, usually known as reclamation, and also known as land fill (not to be confused with a waste landfill), is the process of creating new land from oceans, seas, riverbeds or lake beds. The land reclaimed is known as reclamati ...
from the sea for industrial use. The site was purchased by IHI Corporation for use as a shipyard, a plan that was never realised. The site lay idle for many years. Construction of the solar plant began in September 2012. Construction and engineering was carried out by Kyocera Solar Corporation, Kyudenko Corporation, and Takenaka Corporation. The plant went online on 1November 2013. At the time of commissioning, it was the largest solar plant in Japan, and the first in the country with a capacity over 50 MW. It has since been surpassed in scale by several other solar plants.


Facility and operations

The power station occupies an area of approximately . It has a capacity of 70 MW, generated by 290,000 solar panels. The station also has a public tour facility called the Kagoshima Nanatsujima Solar Science Museum. Operation and maintenance of the plant is carried out by Kyocera and Kyudenko. The power generated is sold to
Kyushu Electric Power (, OSE: 9508, ) is a Japanese energy company that provides power to 7 prefectures (Fukuoka, Nagasaki, Ōita, Saga, Miyazaki, Kumamoto, Kagoshima), and recently, to some parts of Hiroshima Prefecture. Its shortened name of is sometimes used ...
under the Japanese government's
feed-in tariff A feed-in tariff (FIT, FiT, standard offer contract,Couture, T., Cory, K., Kreycik, C., Williams, E., (2010)Policymaker's Guide to Feed-in Tariff Policy Design National Renewable Energy Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy advanced renewable tariff, ...
programme. The impact of volcanic ash, from nearby
Sakurajima Sakurajima ( ja, 桜島, literally "Cherry Blossom Island") is an active stratovolcano, formerly an island and now a peninsula, in Kagoshima Prefecture in Kyushu, Japan. The lava flows of the 1914 eruption connected it with the Ōsumi Peninsul ...
, on the plant's generating capacity has been a point of concern. Five lorries with high-pressure cleaning equipment are kept at the power station so that volcanic ash can be washed off the solar panels. However, the cleaning equipment had not been used in the first three years of operation as the accumulated ash washed off the panels naturally.


Ownership

The plant was developed by Kagoshima Mega Solar Power Corporation, a consortium of seven companies, namely:
Kyocera Corporation is a Japanese multinational ceramics and electronics manufacturer headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It was founded as in 1959 by Kazuo Inamori and renamed in 1982. It manufactures industrial ceramics, solar power generating systems, telecommunic ...
,
KDDI Corporation () is a Japanese telecommunications operator formed on October 1, 2000 through the merger of DDI Corp. (Daini-Denden Inc.), KDD (Kokusai Denshin Denwa) Corp. (itself a former listed state-owned enterprise privatized in 1998), and IDO Corp. It ...
,
IHI Corporation , formerly known as , is a Japanese engineering corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan that produces and offers ships, space launch vehicles, aircraft engines, marine diesel engines, gas turbines, gas engines, railway systems, turbochargers f ...
, Kyudenko Corporation, Kagoshima Bank,
Bank of Kyoto The is a Japanese bank based in Kyoto. The bank operates mainly in the Kansai region with more than 165 branches in Kyoto, Osaka, Shiga, Nara, Hyogo, Aichi and Tokyo prefectures. The bank offers several banking services such as deposits, loans, ...
, and
Takenaka Corporation is one of five major general contractors in Japan. Takenaka provides architectural, engineering, and construction services and has its headquarters located in Chūō-ku, Osaka, Osaka Prefecture. Takenaka has eight domestic offices in Japan with ...
. The land upon which the plant sits is owned by IHI Corporation and leased to the consortium.


See also

*
List of power stations in Japan This page is a list of power stations in Japan that are publicly or privately owned. List Former power station * Senju Thermal Power Station See also *Electricity sector in Japan *Energy in Japan *List of largest power stations ...
*
Solar power in Japan Solar power in Japan has been expanding since the late 1990s. The country is a major manufacturer and exporter of photovoltaics (PV) and a large installer of domestic PV systems, with most of them grid connected. Japan has a solar irradiance of ...


References


External links

* {{Commons category-inline, Kagoshima Nanatsujima Mega Solar Power Plant Buildings and structures in Kagoshima Photovoltaic power stations in Japan 2013 establishments in Japan Energy infrastructure completed in 2013