Typhoon winds cause panel fire at Japan's largest floating solar plant

Typhoon Faxai struck the coastal city of Chiba, Japan, bringing winds of around 120 mph. At the Yamakura Dam floating solar plant in Ichihara City, which uses modules supplied by Kyocera Corporation, Japanese media reported that the wind tore several solar modules off the project and stacked them. Firefighters said contact between the loose panels and those still moored to the mounting structures overheated the modules and created the conditions for a fire. Footage published by the Asahi Shimbun newspaper showed the extent of the blaze, which firefighters said involved around 50 panels out of the plant's 50,904 modules. A Kyocera spokesperson said the fire was extinguished at around 5.20pm local time and that the extent of the damage was under investigation. The 13.7 MW plant, covering around 44 acres of water, was described as Japan's largest floating photovoltaic installation, and all its power is sold to TEPCO Energy Partner Incorporated.

Extreme typhoon wind loading, reported at around 120 mph, dislodged solar modules from their floating mounting structures. Firefighters said contact between the dislodged panels and the panels still secured to the structure caused overheating that led to the fire. No final investigation findings were reported in the source.

1. Floating PV mounting and anchoring systems should be designed and tested for the extreme wind events typical of the region, including typhoon force winds.
2. Panels torn loose in a storm can create a fire risk where they come into contact with modules that remain in place, so module clamping and mounting hardware should be reviewed for resilience against storm induced movement.
3. Post storm inspection protocols should check specifically for displaced or stacked panels before affected strings are re-energised.

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