Typhoon Faxai damages Japan's large floating solar farm, prompting redesign
Typhoon Faxai ripped sections of the 13.7-MW floating solar plant at Yamakura Dam, causing about 50 panels to catch fire and extensive structural loss.
Japan’s 13.7-MW floating solar project at Yamakura Dam, inaugurated in March 2018 with 50,904 panels spread over about 44 acres of water, suffered severe damage when Typhoon Faxai struck the Chiba region in September 2019. The storm’s gusts, reported at roughly 120 mph, caused sections of the floating array to break free from their moorings, and the displaced panels piled together, sparking a fire that involved around 50 modules.
A Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry investigation identified the loss of seven anchors on the central southern side as the primary cause, which triggered sequential resin-bolt failures and split the platform into three sections. The incident highlighted engineering challenges for large floating solar systems under extreme wind loads. Reconstruction began with Ciel & Terre and Kyocera redesigning the layout into smaller, square-shaped islands to improve safety factors. By October 2021 the plant was restored to its roughly 14-MW capacity, demonstrating the feasibility of rebuilding after typhoon damage.
Why it matters
The event shows that floating solar farms must be engineered to survive extreme weather, a key issue for expanding renewable energy on limited land.
In this story
