NHK to Start 'Green Radio' Broadcasting with Megawatt-Scale Photovoltaic System

The Japan Broadcasting Corporation (Nippon Hoso Kyokai, or NHK), Japan's national broadcaster, announced on June 2, 2011, a two-year project to install a two-megawatt solar power generation system at the NHK Shoubu-Kuki Radio Broadcast Station in Kuki, Saitama Prefecture. When the system is completed at the end of FY 2012, its maximum power output during peak daytime hours will be able to supply all the electricity used by the station.

Using Japan's largest transmission power, the Shoubu-kuki Radio Station broadcasts two radio services, NHK Radio 1 and Radio 2, to an expansive area that mainly covers the Kanto and Koushinetsu regions, which includes the Tokyo metropolitan area, and reaches as far as a part of Miyagi Prefecture in the north and a part of Aichi Prefecture in the west. The broadcast area covers approximately 20 million households, which accounts for 40 percent of all households in Japan.

The Shoubu-Kuki Station has two tall antennas, 245 meters and 215 meters. Each antenna is accompanied with "radial earth" wires to enhance their transmission efficiency. The copper wires, which are the same length as each antenna, are buried at a shallow depth in the soil and pointed outward in all directions. The station's total land area is 313,121 square meters, large enough to accommodate the new megawatt-scale photovoltaic system. NHK plans to complete installation of a one-megawatt system and bring the system online by the end of FY 2011.

Japan's Largest-scale Photovoltaic Power Plants to be Constructed in Waterfront Area, Kawasaki (Related JFS article)
http://www.japanfs.org/en/pages/029752.html
Tohoku Electric Power to Construct Large Solar Power Generation Facilities (Related JFS article)
http://www.japanfs.org/en/pages/029032.html

Posted: 2011/10/13 06:00:15 AM