Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) has launched a large-scale solar power plant on Tokyo Bay with enough juice to power 2,100 homes.
The Ukishima power plant, situated on an 11-hectare site in Kawasaki City near Haneda airport, will generate electricity from approximately 38,000 solar panels made by Sharp.
It produces up to 7,000 kw, enough to power 2,100 households, and it's expected to reduce CO2 emissions by 3,100 tons per year.
As Tepco struggles to contain the Fukushima nuclear crisis following the March 11 earthquake and tsunamis, it posted a record quarterly group net loss for the April-June period.
With power-generating capacity diminished, Japanese are continuing to conserve electricity, with some companies shutting down for part of the week.
The utility is also planning to launch a second solar plant nearby. The Ohgishima power plant, under construction on a 23-hectare site, will incorporate some 64,000 solar panels made by Kyocera and generate 13,000 kw.
The combined output of the plants, about 20,000 kw, is enough to meet the electricity needs of 5,900 households, and will be one of the largest solar projects in Japan.
At a ceremony marking the 66th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima August 6, Prime Minister Naoto Kan pledged to reduce the country's reliance on nuclear power, the source of about a third of its electricity before the crisis.
