Japan's floating solar farm hit by 120mph typhoon; around 50 panels caught fire
A major floating solar farm in Japan was severely damaged by Typhoon Faxai in 2019, resulting in a fire involving approximately 50 solar panels. The incident highlighted the engineering challenges of maintaining large-scale floating energy infrastructure in extreme weather conditions.
Why it matters
As floating solar becomes a popular renewable energy solution, this case study provides critical data on structural resilience and fire safety for future projects.
Japan’s push to generate renewable electricity from reservoirs took a dramatic turn in 2019 when a powerful typhoon damaged one of the country’s largest floating solar farms. The project at Yamakura Dam in Ichihara, Chiba Prefecture, began operating in March 2018 with thousands of solar panels spread across the reservoir. According to Kyocera, a Japanese technology and electronics company involved in the project, the 13.7-megawatt plant had 50,904 solar modules installed across about 180,000 square metres of the reservoir. Just 18 months later, Typhoon Faxai brought extremely strong winds to the region, tearing sections of the floating array apart. Some of the displaced panels piled onto other modules, eventually contributing to a fire that involved about 50 panels.
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