Abstract
Following the global trend of climate change mitigation, Japan has been rapidly increasing its share of renewable energy, in particular, its share of solar energy. However, Japan has limited flat land area that is suitable for solar photovoltaic (PV) power generation and a high risk of natural disasters. There is a possibility that some of its newly built solar power plants are located in areas where landslides and floods are likely to occur. Therefore, it is important to study the locations for solar PV from the perspective of disaster risk management. Previous studies have reported a number of incidents where solar PV installations were damaged as a result of natural disasters. One study utilized geographical analysis technology to reveal the overlapping of solar PV powerplant locations and disaster-prone areas in Fukuoka prefecture in Japan. However, to our best knowledge, no previous research about the solar PV locations' hazard risks has been done on a national scale. This paper investigates the risks stemming from landslides and floods for the existing solar PV power plants in Japan. We compare the geographical data of disaster risks in Japan with the location data of solar PV power plants to investigate the number of solar PV power plants located in disaster risk areas. Our results show that the shares of medium and large-scale solar PV power plants located in areas where landslides and floods are likely to occur are about 8.5 and 9.1% respectively.
Highlights
The number of solar photovoltaic (PV) power plants in Japan has been increasing in recent years
We found the number of points where the sediment disaster hazard areas and the flood and inundation hazard areas in each prefecture overlap with the solar PV power plant locations
Our result potentially supports the development of insurance system for the solar PV power plant operators, as our study revealed that some solar PV power plants already locate in the disaster risk areas, and that the system can potentially be used the evaluation of the risk type and magnitude for solar PV upon conducting relevant improvement
Summary
The number of solar photovoltaic (PV) power plants in Japan has been increasing in recent years. Since the introduction of the Feed-in Tariff system in 2012 to promote renewable energy, solar PV power generation, which has a relatively short set-up process, in particular has played a central role (Figure 1). The maximum power generation potential is limited due to the grid connection capacity, the government plans to significantly increase renewable energy, including solar PV power generation by 2030, toward its target to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. The share of renewable energy in total power generation will increase from 18% in 2019 to 36–38% in 2030. Solar power generation will increase from 6.7% in 2019 to 14–16% in 2030, and wind power generation will increase from 0.7% in 2019 to 5% in 2030 (Agency for Natural Resources Energy, 2021b)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
