The result is that a relic of Japan’s economic bubble is playing an unlikely role in the country’s energy transition. For the past decade, defunct golf courses have been vital to solar growth. About 9% of Japan’s utility-scale solar capacity is on former golf courses, according to an analysis of a BloombergNEF data that includes arrays with capacity of 0.9 megawatts or greater.
I think it’s an optimistic sign that a solar farm is more economically viable than a golf course (even if it’s an old one).
I’d love to see it happen to Mar-a-Lago
That’s been true in Japan for a long time, for many things that saw boom-and-bust expansions. Theme parks are a really cool example of this, where Japan built a TON of regional theme parks in the 90s, only for them to become defunct and abandoned as tourist revenue dried up (or failed to materialize in the first place). Difference here is that while a defunct theme park is also less viable than a solar array, a golf course doesn’t require significant demo first.