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The new photovoltaic solar plant stretches out along the waterfront in an industrial waste sector. It will be among the largest facilities of its type in the world, upon its completion.  (Source: Kansai Electric Power Co., Ltd. and Sharp Co., Ltd. )

The two completed plants will pump out a combined 28 MW.  (Source: Kansai Electric Power Co., Ltd. and Sharp Co., Ltd. )
New parks are anything but small

With solar energy peaking in the U.S. thanks to consumer interest and government promotion, Japan is looking to grow some solar power of its own.  Sakai, Kansai Electric Power Co., and Sharp Co. announced plans this week to unleash some "mega solar power", building two massive solar farms.

The new farms will be placed on the waterfront of Sakai, a major city in the Osaka province.  With 8 million citizens Osaka province is one of Japan's more populous provinces. 

Sharp is a strong supporter of solar power.  It manufacturers photo-voltaic (PV) solar cells, including those used in pocket electronics, like calculators.  It also produces so called "glowing glass", a pair of panels which capture solar light and reemit it indoors.  Sharp's solar experience also includes its smaller, but substantial, solar farm installation at its LCD TV Panel plant in Kameyama.  The plant features 5 MW of power production.

The first of the two new plants will be located in District No. 7-3, an industrial waste district.  When completed, it will pump out 10 MW of power to the region.  The second power plant is dubbed the "Sakai complex solar power generation facility".  A location has yet to be decided but it will produce 18 MW, bringing the plants combined production to 28 MW.

The plants will produce enough electricity to power much of the city and will help cut its CO2 emissions by 10,000 tons per year.  Production on the first plant will start soon, and both plants are expected to be online by 2010.

Looking towards the future, Sharp is planning to open its new thin-film silicon solar cell factory in March 2010.  The factory will be cutting edge and will produce cells implementing some of the most advanced technologies.  This will yield more efficient solar cells.

The new plants represent just one example of Sakai's growing environmental efforts.  The city is becoming a leader in Japan's green movement.

The new plants will be among the largest PV plants in the world.  Spain currently holds the top four largest operating plants, with the largest producing 23 MW.  If it were producing today, the 18 MW plant would be the fifth largest in the world, after the four 20+ MW plants in Spain. 

By the time they are completed, there will be a handful of new larger facilities, though.  A 62 MW plant is scheduled for completion by 2010 in Moura, Portugal and 40 MW plant will be completed in 2009 in Muldentalkreis, Germany.  The largest proposed plant on record is a 154 MW plant to possibly be built in Mildura/Swan Hill, Australia.

Photovoltaic power is popular for its easy cell production using existing chip-processing technology, which helps to alleviate the financial burden of the technology.

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Doesn't make sense
By FITCamaro on 6/26/2008 10:04:45 AM , Rating: 2
In a nation where space is insanely valuable, to be using such a large amount of land to produce so little power, its just absurd. They could power the entire region probably with a nuclear reactor that fit in less space and put out FAR more power. And its not like water is an issue since its next to the freakin ocean. You just have to design it with salt water in mind. I'm sure its feasible.




RE: Doesn't make sense
By nah on 6/26/2008 10:13:18 AM , Rating: 3
Quite correct. AS much as I don't want to say it--nuclear is the way to go for nations where space is at a premium and water is widely available--unless you are a landlocked desert nation with limited water supplies or no access to even ocean water--it's a non issue.
Unfortunately developing nations don't have much incentive to pursue nuclear--India and China are probably exceptions here--since most of them have trouble raising capital or have no political will to do so---in which case solar power--even the highly expensive PV and not thermal kind --make sense. They are cheaper and less non polluting than candles/driftwood/other stuff which the very poor use for power.
Incidentally, anyone ( masher-obviously) know about the effects cooling has on the water--can it be used again or released back into the oceans ?


RE: Doesn't make sense
By JasonMick (blog) on 6/26/2008 10:33:20 AM , Rating: 5
Well, you'd be happy to know Japan is also a leader in nuclear efforts. Unlike the U.S., which only has one new construction proposal filed, Japan has been building many plants and has some of the world's most high tech designs.

Japan is a very strong advocate of alternative energy and seems especially fond of nuclear and solar. Its varied approach I would say is commendable, not a mistake. Diversifying alternative energy prevents overreliance on a specific alternative resource and allows for new applications of the respective field in other industries, and new ways to work the particular technology into wasteland or into an urban setting.

Water from nuclear plants is heated, the level of which depending on the plant design. For this reason the amount that can be released into rivers or lakes is limited and cooling ponds are often used. However the ocean is so vast, typically water could be released into it with little effect other than minor localized ones, in theory.

I think most of the commenters in this thread missed that the park is being built in an industrial waste sector. This is not a place where many people would want to regularly work, making it ideal for solar, which requires less maintenance and less ideal for nuclear, which requires lots of maintenance.

I agree that nuclear is generally a good technology to pursue, but don't equate being pronuclear to being antisolar. The two are simply not mutually exclusive.


RE: Doesn't make sense
By JustTom on 6/26/2008 11:01:58 AM , Rating: 1
While your point on these facilities being built on industrial waste sites is a good one it still begs the question: where is the industrial waste going to go now?


RE: Doesn't make sense
By omnicronx on 6/26/2008 12:09:14 PM , Rating: 5
I think people also forget that a nuclear facility on the ocean is not really a secure position. Here in Canada, they are required to have coastguard boats roaming up and down the coast constantly, and this is in the great lakes, not an ocean that's accessible to pretty much anyone.


RE: Doesn't make sense
By CyberHawk on 6/26/2008 1:01:19 PM , Rating: 2
I just wish that more of people like you would live in US.

Some are really looking too narrow, or they are saying things "because they think it is so".


RE: Doesn't make sense
By Spuke on 6/26/2008 2:07:26 PM , Rating: 5
quote:
I just wish that more of people like you would live in US.
The rest of us are just dumb crackers.


RE: Doesn't make sense
By masher2 (blog) on 6/26/2008 11:16:45 AM , Rating: 5
> "Incidentally, anyone ( masher-obviously) know about the effects cooling has on the water--can it be used again or released back into the oceans ? "

It can be released; it's wholly non-radioactive. For rivers, there may be problems with the temperature of the expelled water, but it's not an issue if you're exhausting directly into the ocean itself.


RE: Doesn't make sense
By MRwizard on 6/26/08, Rating: -1
RE: Doesn't make sense
By kenji4life on 6/27/2008 11:22:36 PM , Rating: 2
I will assume that you didn't mean to infer that Japan is a developing nation, or at least not in the traditional sense. Of course I think 99% of the people on this site already knows, but Japan is a world leader in technology, be it consumer, industrial, or transportation. It is also as Mr. Asher pointed out, one of the leading countries in the world in terms of Nuclear power.

It has been said already, but there are many benefits to building this solar array:

1. It is built on land that is not very feasible for other uses.
2. It can be used as a test of the latest technology, as well as to further research.
3. It may not be producing anywhere near as much as a nuclear plant, but it is plenty enough to power a large portion of the surrounding area.
4. There are no tall buildings, trees, or other obstructions which would further decrease the efficiency of solar power.
5. This can be used by the company as a promotional tool.
6. There probably will not be much debate about this, aside from the adamantly pro-nuclear crowd (at least the ones who think building anything anywhere but a nuclear plant is a waste of time, space and money, yeah you know who you are
7. We are harnessing a resource that is free and essentially limitless, despite the lack of efficiency. Refer to 1 and 2.
8. The more people build and develop the fore running solar technologies, the better the successive tries will usually be. Imagine if we had stopped building new cars once the first were built? Imagine the comedy of a world filled with 1886 Benz Motorwagons and 1900's Ford model T's.

What we saw as impossible just 10 or 20 years ago has become commonplace. Thousands of megabytes of data was a phenomenal amount in the early nineties, with the most die-hard computer users purchasing hard drives containing less than that much storage capacity, thinking they were set for years. Now most people ignore a 1GB SD card or USB memory stick, as the bargains are in the 2GB, 4GB, even 8GB models. Buildings today are so tall that clouds float by, and only 200 years ago such buildings only existed on mountains or were rare wonders.

I hope that I live to see the day that a solar panel easily fits the roof of my house, sitting on perhaps only the south side, will provide enough power for all of the amazing technology that also exists at that time. Who knows, perhaps with shrinking switches and circuits and new innovation, a house filled with marvelous inventions may only consume a fraction of the power that it does today. We have already taken steps forward with light bulbs, more efficient appliances and power supplies, and more energy efficient construction.

You do not have to be an environmentalist to think that doing more with less is a "bright" idea.


RE: Doesn't make sense
By AnnihilatorX on 6/26/08, Rating: 0
RE: Doesn't make sense
By FITCamaro on 6/26/2008 10:27:10 AM , Rating: 3
If you reprocess the waste back into fuel, the waste is minimal. Get a clue.


RE: Doesn't make sense
By Master Kenobi (blog) on 6/26/2008 10:29:59 AM , Rating: 4
quote:
But radioactive waste is a huge problem.

No, it's not. Radioactive waste can be reprocessed continuously and reused as fuel in reactors to continue to produce power. The "leftover" that can't be used is not a problem to run and can be safely run through a vitrification process.

quote:
Those waste persist in enviornment for millenia.

Vitrification, it really is a great thing. The material is pretty harmless, and can be safely stored. Otherwise you can bleed out the radiation and produce tank armor, or bullet tips (See: M1A1 Abrams Armor Plating, or A-10 Avenger Ammunition).

quote:
It's not as easy as dig a hole underground and store them, especiall in Japan which is prone to earthquakes.

For a nomial fee I'm sure that the USA would be happy to store Japan's nuclear "waste", that way we can use it later when we come up with new ways to use the super hard material.


RE: Doesn't make sense
By JustTom on 6/26/2008 11:05:27 AM , Rating: 2
I agree with everything you said till this:
quote:
For a nomial fee I'm sure that the USA would be happy to store Japan's nuclear "waste", that way we can use it later when we come up with new ways to use the super hard material.


The U.S. doesn't even have the will to store its own nuclear waste let alone another nation's.


RE: Doesn't make sense
By Oregonian2 on 6/26/2008 1:57:39 PM , Rating: 3
quote:
The U.S. doesn't even have the will to store its own nuclear waste let alone another nation's.


Actually, I think we already are although I forget just what other country or countries we're storing for. It's not like the Nuclear waste isn't being stored now -- it's just being stored in back yards currently while we continue to debate whether buried a few miles under a stable Nevada mountain is safer than where it is now (duh).


RE: Doesn't make sense
By monkeyman1140 on 6/26/2008 11:08:17 AM , Rating: 1
Reprocessing nuclear fuel creates even more radioactive waste...bummer.

DU is not harmless. If you have been in the military, you most likely have been told or have been given manuals that tell you in combat to avoid getting near destroyed vehicles like tanks and APC's because they either have DU armor, contain DU-tipped ammo, or have been destroyed by DU weaponry.

The only true depleted uranium that is harmless is called lead. DU becomes lead in about 2.4 billion years.

Low level radioactive waste is the achilles heel of nuclear power. They chug out tons of radioactive water which by volume is massive compared to the rather compact but still substantial high level waste such as spent fuel. Those plans for hollowed out mountains don't have the capacity for all the radioactive water, just for the spent fuel and solid waste.


RE: Doesn't make sense
By masher2 (blog) on 6/26/2008 11:21:04 AM , Rating: 5
> "DU is not harmless."

It is by any rational definition of the term. While nothing in this worly is totally harmless, DU is *less* harmful than the natural uranium in the ground itself, uranium found all over the world. It's still a heavy metal, obviously, so chemically its about as toxic as lead.

If you think DU is dangerous, I suggest you try running your geiger counter (you do have one, don't you?) over some bananas at your local supermarket. You'll be surprised at the results.