After living through the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, residents of Fukushima, Japan are working to turn their community into a leading generator of solar electricity.
“Driven by a strong desire to become energy independent and revitalize their local economy, the people of Fukushima are expected to continue deploying more solar projects than any other prefectures in Japan,” Renewable Energy World reports. “The prefecture currently leads the nation in reserved PV capacity under the nation’s FIT (feed-in tariff) program,” with more than 4.2 gigawatts, 69% of it for photovoltaic systems above two megawatts.
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Local highlights include a 10-MW solar system in the village of Iitate, located in a former meadow that has since been decontaminated, a 6-MW installation at the port of Onahama in Iwaki, and a 20-MW solar plant in Tomioka, a town within the 20-kilometre radius around the disaster site, where homes “were totally destroyed and remain untouched because of high radiation levels.”
