Japan's Largest Solar Power Facilities Completed

In April 2004, the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) completed construction of the Tsukuba Center Solar Power Facility at its research center in Tsukuba City (approximately 60 km northeast of Tokyo). This facility will supply one million kilowatt-hours of clean energy annually (roughly equivalent to 300 households' yearly electricity needs), and is expected to reduce annual carbon dioxide emissions by approximately 300 tons.

This 844-kilowatt decentralized system will have the largest output of all solar power generation facilities in Japan. It includes four types of solar panels: monocrystal silicon, polycrystal silicon, heterojunction, and amorphous silicon. The panels cover approximately 6,500 square meters, roughly the area of a soccer field. The facility will supply power to the AIST and also be used for testing and assessing vulnerability to environmental conditions as well as energy conservation.

Japan has been the world's leading producer and user of solar power since 2000, and this facility will serve as a hub to assemble and showcase Japan's state-of-the-art solar power technology to the world. Using the installed instruments for measuring and recording operating and meteorological conditions, researchers will be able to conduct evaluations of many aspects of the system.

Japan's official energy plans call for 4.82 million kilowatts of solar power consumption in 2010 (roughly seven times the current 640,000 kilowatts). This megawatt class system will be a model for future power systems that will inevitably become widely used in local communities as Japan strives to increase solar power use.



Posted: 2004/07/19 12:00:02 PM
Japanese version