Japan's Largest Solar Power System to Be Installed at Purification Plant

The Tokyo Metropolitan Waterworks Bureau announced on January 13, 2004, that it has started building a photovoltaic (PV) power facility with a generating capacity of 1,200 kilowatts at the Asaka Water Purification Plant in Saitama Prefecture, one of the main purification plants serving Tokyo. This facility will be the first megawatt-class PV power generation system in Japan.

This will be the largest PV system in Japan and one of the largest in the world, and is scheduled to start operation in fiscal 2005. Solar battery panels will be installed on covers to be placed on filter basins to keep them clear of foreign material during the final treatment process.

By saving about 960,000 kilowatt-hours of energy per year, equivalent to the annual consumption of 270 households, the Waterworks Bureau expects to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 450 tons, as well as to save about 24 million yen (U.S. $224,000) a year in electricity bills.

Starting in FY 2003, the bureau plans to sequentially install PV systems at a total of eight water purification plants by FY 2006. When these installations are completed, their total power output will be about 5,200 kilowatts.



Posted: 2004/03/28 01:12:49 PM
Japanese version