Japan is turning its abandoned golf courses into solar power plants

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

Abandoned housing and abandoned factories might be rife across the world, but Japan has a problem with derelictness you might not have heard of before – abandoned golf courses.

They're starting to pop up across the country, due to a huge number of them being built during a boom in the industry in the 80s which is now falling, with participation in the sport down 40%.

The courses could have been levelled for development, but instead Kyocera is using their vast open spaces to install solar panels.

The renewable energy initiative is being welcomed in Japan, which has been looking for alternatives to nuclear energy after the 2011 Fukushima disaster left a bad taste in the mouth.

The first 23 megawatt golf course project will launch in 2017 and produce enough power for around 8,000 homes.

Planning on an additional solar plant began in January 2014 and is now underway - it will cover approximately 2,000,000m2, accommodate 340,740 Kyocera solar modules, and is expected to generate roughly 99,230MWh annually – enough to power approximately 30,500 households.

There are several bold green initiatives in the works around the world right now, including one run by an ex-Nasa engineer who is hoping to plant one billion trees a year using drones.