Japan’s floating solar farm faced Typhoon Faxai; modules broke loose and 50 panels caught fire

Representative Image (AI-generated) Japan’s push to generate renewable electricity from reservoirs took a dramatic turn in 2019 when a powerful typhoon damaged one of the country’s largest floating solar farms. The project at Yamakura Dam in Ichihara, Chiba Prefecture, began operating in March 2018 with thousands of solar panels spread across the reservoir. According to Kyocera, a Japanese technology and electronics company involved in the project, the 13.7-megawatt plant had 50,904 solar modules installed across about 180,000 square metres of the reservoir. Just 18 months later, Typhoon Faxai brought extremely strong winds to the region, tearing sections of the floating array apart. Some of the displaced panels piled onto other modules, eventually contributing to a fire that involved about 50 panels. The incident highlighted an unusual challenge facing floating solar technology: while placing solar panels on reservoirs can save valuable land, the installations must also withstand powerful winds and the forces created when large floating structures move across water.Japan’s giant floating solar projectAccording to pv magazine, the 13.7-megawatt Yamakura Dam project was damaged when...