Kyocera TCL Solar, a joint venture of Kyocera and Century Tokyo Leasing broke ground on January 21 at Yamakura Dam in Chiba Prefecture to build the world’s largest floating solar plant. The 13.7 mega-watt plant is slated to begin power generation in 2017. Kyocera Communication Systems is responsible for design and engineering while Kyocera Solar Corporation is commissioned for maintenance.

The plant will be built on reservoir water of Yamakura Dam spanning some 18 hectare with 51,000 photovoltaic modules with expectation of reducing CO2 emmission by 8170 ton a year. The estimated power generation is 16,170 megawatt hours (MWh) per year, equivalent for power consumed by approximately 4,970 typical households. (2016/01/25)