Takara Leben, Hitachi Zosen and Solar Frontier announced to construct a 15MW solar power plant located on a former golf course in Nakagawa, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. The power generated by the plant will be sold to the grid. Takara Leben owns the former golf course, Hitachi Zosen is providing EPC services for the project, and Solar Frontier supplied its CIS thin-film modules.
This project marks the first time that small inverters have been used in an extra high voltage megasolar plant in Japan. The overall design is expected to reduce the initial investment cost and ongoing operating expenses for this project. It also spreads the risk of power loss and the need for site work during construction, reducing the burden on the environment.
The plant will benefit from stable energy output thanks to Solar Frontier’s CIS thin-film modules. CIS modules have a higher tolerance for partial shading and heat compared to crystalline silicon modules, providing higher energy output as well as enabling the plant to provide more stable output on north-facing slopes.
The use of small inverters is expected to provide lower ongoing operating expenses and risk for this project. Fairways and other areas in golf courses differ in size, requiring a more complex array layout and electrical system design. Central inverters have, until now, limited this design. This project, however, takes a different approach by using small 20 kW inverters to overcome the configuration issue. The system design also spreads the risk of power loss since equipment can be replaced on the same day.
The plant’s design reduces the burden on the environment by negating the need for site work thanks to its use of a one-pile foundation structure. This means that not only the height difference between modules in east-west installed arrays is smaller, but the number of pile-drivers used in the installation is less than half that of previous installations, resulting in shorter installation time and a reduction in environmental burden.
