Fukushima Is Becoming a Renewable Energy Hub Making Use of the Area Tainted by Radiation

• Japan is deploying a 300b ($2.75b) yen venture to turn disaster-stricken Fukushima to a green-energy farm, with the project’s first solar plant scheduled to be launched in January 2020.

Creating wind and solar facilities on agricultural land suffered from radiation from the 2011 Dai-Ichi plant disaster will help recover the territory, which was also subject to earthquake and tsunami, according to Masashi Takeuchi, head of energy department of Fukushima government.

The project includes targets for 11 solar parks and 10 wind parks with total capacity of 600 MW and is expected to be completed by March 2024. Japanese government is going to invest 30b yen of grants. Besides, as Nikkei announced earlier, the list of institutions intended to provide funding include such major banks as Japanese Development Bank along with Mizuho.

The first solar plant will most likely be a 20MW facility located in Minamisoma, which is in the north of Fukushima, as was stated by Takeuchi. Fukushima prefecture, which used to supply Tokyo with nuclear power before the accident, is modifying the energy policy as Tokyo Electric Power Company gets rid of nuclear reactors among public anxiety regarding their safety.