Power from nature

Tokyo, Japan

With 127 million people packed onto 141,000 square miles (365,000 square kilometers) of its islands, Japan often has to get creative with its limited land mass. City dwellers in Tokyo are crammed into high-rise condos and micro apartments, setting a new bar for dealing with population density. But the country's efficient construction doesn't stop with urban housing. The energy sector also does its part.

Solar power plant project leaders have been especially successful in this arena, finding ways to repurpose unused spaces ranging from abandoned golf courses to floating offshore platforms. This approach—partnered with increased investments in renewable energy—has helped Japan develop one of the world's largest photovoltaic solar markets.

One of the most recent projects in this vein, a two-year, JPY2.5 billion solar plant that was completed in October 2015, was built on a reclaimed island on Lake Biwa, Japan's largest freshwater lake. The 8.5-megawatt plant is the largest solar power plant in Shiga Prefecture and will generate enough electricity to power about 2,900 homes.

“As people in the community have a strong connection with Yabasekihanto Island, we made our best efforts to meet their requests through much dialogue.”

—Norio Nakamura, Kyocera Corp., Tokyo, Japan

Lake Biwa in Japan

Project planning began in October 2013, when Shiga Prefecture was publicly seeking companies to construct a solar power plant on underutilized land on Yabasekihanto Island. The project was awarded to Kyocera TCL Solar LLC, a joint venture of Kyocera Corp. and Century Tokyo Leasing Corp., in December 2013. Construction began in October 2014.

Yabasekihanto Island, which was reclaimed in 1982 to establish a sewage facility, also houses recreational facilities including a park and tennis courts. Because Yabasekihanto is a lively local landmark, the project team wanted to make sure the solar plant would be seen as a useful innovation—rather than an inconvenience.

“We carried out the project with awareness of the importance of natural conservation.”

—Katsuhiko Onuma, Kyocera Communication Systems Co. Ltd., Osaka, Japan

PHOTO BY IRWIN WONG

During the application process, Kyocera added public amenities to the project scope that would be useful in case of an emergency, including solar power-supply equipment and solar streetlights with clocks. The organization chose to include this equipment based on its experience during the 2011 earthquake, when large swaths of the affected region lost power. During that crisis, mobile communication base stations and mobile power source vehicles helped people charge their cellphones and connect with loved ones.

“The emergency power-supply equipment includes cables that are compliant with all mobile phone types, as well as a flashlight, radio and batteries,” says Norio Nakamura, Kyocera Corp., Tokyo, Japan. “We provided the keys to open the equipment boxes to the manager of the facility for use in times of disaster.”

The project scope also included an elevated observation deck where year-round visitors can view the field of more than 33,000 solar modules with the picturesque Lake Biwa in the background.

“As people in the community have a strong connection with Yabasekihanto Island, we made our best efforts to meet their requests through much dialogue,” Mr. Nakamura says.

The observation deck in particular helped the project team educate the community about the benefits of solar power—and build backing for the project. The team put up a fence to keep children from wandering into the construction site, but the viewing station allowed visitors of all ages to safely watch and learn.

The 8.5-megawatt plant is the largest solar power plant in Shiga Prefecture and will generate enough electricity to power about 2,900 homes.

“As we constructed the plant adjacent to a park, we made special considerations in order to prevent children from being able to enter the plant area, while also allowing children to see clean energy as something close at hand,” says Mr. Nakamura.

In addition to educating the public, the team had to proactively navigate ecological issues. The project site is designated as a special zone of the Biwako Quasi-National Park, which meant the plant's equipment had to be constructed using colors that fit within the surrounding natural environment, says Katsuhiko Onuma, construction site manager, Shiga Yabasekihanto Mega Solar Power Plant, Kyocera Communication Systems Co. Ltd., Osaka, Japan.

“Based on the Natural Park Act, Shiga Prefecture requested that installed equipment be painted a dark brown color,” he says. “However, as darker colors reduce the efficiency of equipment, such as inverters, we carried out multiple discussions with the department in charge at Shiga Prefecture and designed the surrounding fence with a dark brown color and the equipment with a lighter color.”

Keeping the equipment in harmony with the rest of the park was one component of Shiga Prefecture's efforts to support the national government's goal of maintaining the natural landscape and conserving the area's biological diversity. Given the sensitive nature of the surrounding environment, the project team also had to conduct an environmental impact assessment on animals and plants inhabiting the site.

The assessment revealed four types of species and plants that were important to the ecosystem, Mr. Onuma says. “We carried out the project with awareness of the importance of natural conservation,” he says. For instance, the team transplanted two types of native plants within the project site and released two types of fish in Lake Biwa to bolster their populations.

TALENT SPOTLIGHT

Norio Nakamura, assistant manager, EMS business section, Kyocera Corp.

Location: Tokyo, Japan

Experience: 35 years

Other notable projects:

1. Izumo City, Japan utility-scale solar power plant project, which was completed in October 2015. Mr. Nakamura helped manage construction.

2. Fukushima Prefecture utility-scale solar power plant project, currently under development. Mr. Nakamura is helping to manage the project.

Career lessons learned:

“Projects that involve multiple companies succeed not through each company pursuing their own benefits, but through companies pursuing a larger cause such as contributions to local industries and residents that will benefit because of the success.”

“The emergency power-supply equipment includes cables that are compliant with all mobile phone types, as well as a flashlight, radio and batteries.”

—Norio Nakamura

Observation deck

BIGGER AND BETTER

To keep the project on schedule and mitigate potential risks, the project team met monthly with the Shiga Prefecture water and sewage office, which manages the island. The meetings provided regular occasions to move the public amenities portion of the project forward.

Because the power equipment and streetlights were being donated, the project team had to coordinate with multiple stakeholders to determine specifications such as the size of the equipment and whether the systems would be connected to the grid. When prolonged discussions started to put the schedule at risk, the project team changed its communication strategy, moving to a more individualized approach.

Solar streetlight

PHOTOS COURTESY OF KYOCERA CORP.

“We attentively communicated and worked with each related party separately and were able to improve progress,” says Mr. Onuma. “In addition, we were aware of the importance of transparency. So, we kept stakeholders informed on newly made decisions.”

Kyocera and Century Tokyo Leasing plan to use the lessons learned on this project on other solar power plants they are developing with other organizations across Japan, including a 92MW plant in Kagoshima and a 23MW plant in Kyoto. And the project is even more significant for Kyocera TCL Solar. The Yabasekihanto Island project was the joint venture's largest at the time and the first plant it built connected to an extra-high voltage transmission line.

Emergency equipment

Kid-friendly areas at the plant

“Originally, Kyocera TCL Solar only developed projects with outputs under 2MW, but we are now planning to develop plants with output scales of several dozen megawatts,” Mr. Nakamura says. “As a pioneer project for these larger plants planned, we believe that it has helped us to accumulate the technology to perform long-term, stable operations with high quality.”

“We were aware of the importance of transparency. So, we kept stakeholders informed on newly made decisions.”

—Katsuhiko Onuma

Mr. Onuma attributes success, in part, to a clear definition of roles and responsibilities on the project team. By giving specific team members the authority to communicate issues to the project management office and make decisions on the ground, the project team was able to ramp up productivity and avoid costly delays. And that has helped Kyocera play a bigger role in defining Japan's energy future, Mr. Nakamura says.

“By further promoting solar power generation, Kyocera aims to contribute to increasing Japan's energy self-sufficiency and creating a clean, sustainable society.” PM