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.

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[–] 6 points 3 hours ago

You do have to be careful though, sometimes those tarpaper roofs are trying to keep heat inside the building, or trying to keep lines from freezing in the winter.

That being said, there's plenty of places in Japan where you could throw up a canopy of solar panels tied into the grid.

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