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Kyocera TCL Solar, a joint venture formed between Century Tokyo Leasing Corporation and Kyocera Corporation, will again construct floating PV power plant in Japan. The company has started construction of the 13.7MW floating solar power station on the Yamakura Dam reservoir in Chiba Prefecture, Japan -- the largest-of-its-kind in the world.
The floating PV plant will be built on the water surface of the Yamakura Dam reservoir, which is managed by the Public Enterprises Agency of Chiba Prefecture for industrial water services. Kyocera TCL Solar will pave 50,904 pieces of Kyocera’s 270W PV modules over a fresh water surface area of approximately 180,000m2.
The PV plant has been started construction in December 2015 and the constructor held a pray ritual on January 21 2016 for hopes of safety and smooth going. The plant is scheduled to be completed in mid-2017, with an estimated power generation of 16,170MWh per year -- enough electricity to power approximately 4,970 typical households — while offsetting about 8,170 tons of CO2 emissions annually. This is equal to 19,000 barrels of oil consumed.
Kyocera TCL Solar has developed approximately 100MW of solar power stations in Japan. The JV started developing floating PV plant in 2014, and has successfully built two floating solar power plants on reservoirs respectively in Kato City, Hyogo (2.3MW) and in Kasai City, Hyogo (combined by plants with capacities of 1.7MW and 1.2MW).
It has become trendy in Japan to build floating PV plants. This kind of solar arrays utilizes wide areas of water surfaces, and the water-cooling effect helps improve power output of solar modules. Many PV projects in Japan are designed as floating plants. Century Tokyo Leasing, to further integrate development of floating PV systems, announced to purchase 15% of stake in the world’s largest floating system solution provider, France-based Ciel et Terre.
The 13.7MW project was initiated in October 2014, when the Public Enterprises Agency of Chiba Prefecture publicly sought companies to construct and operate a floating solar power plant to help reduce environmental impact.
Kyocera also noted that it will continue developing floating PV projects in the future.