Plans have been announced to convert abandoned areas in Fukushima to a renewable energy hub, a scheme that will involve the construction of new solar plants, wind farms, and a power transmission grid that will feed Tokyo with electricity. The plan calls for 11 solar plants and 10 wind farms to be built on land in the Fukushima prefecture that “cannot be cultivated anymore and mountainous areas from where population outflows continue.
The hub is expected to produce around 600 megawatts of electricity. That’s a fraction of the nearly 4,700 megawatts the former nuclear plant was capable of producing, but will still be enough electricity to power 114,000 average American homes. The project also calls for the construction of a grid-connected to TEPCO’s main backbone grid that can be used to transmit electricity to Tokyo.
This new plan is consistent with prefecture’s goal of having renewable energy supply 40 percent of its demand by 2020, two-thirds by 2030, and 100 percent by 2040, according to the Japan Times.
Name of Author: George Dvorsky