Firefighters battle blaze at floating solar plant near Tokyo

Source: Xinhua| 2019-09-09 16:30:40|Editor: xuxin
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TOKYO, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Firefighters are battling a blaze which broke out at a floating solar power plant in Tokyo's neighboring prefecture of Chiba, local media reported Monday.

According to the reports, the fire, which firefighters are "struggling to contain," broke out at the largest power plant of such kind in Japan, possibly as a result of strong gust of winds left in the wake of Typhoon Faxai, which made landfall in Chiba earlier on Monday.

Thick black smoke was seen billowing from solar panels on the surface of the water on Monday afternoon, the reports said.

The plant is located at the Yamakura Dam in Chiba Prefecture and spans 18 hectares of dam water.

While no injury has been reported so far, firefighters said that around 50 panels have caught fire at the plant which houses more than 50,000 solar panels in total.

Firefighters said that winds from the typhoon may have caused the panels to have become dislodged and pile up on each other.

As a result, they said, the intense heat may have led to the dislodged panels catching fire and the fire spreading to other panels.

The floating solar plant at the Yamakura Dam in Ichihara, Chiba Prefecture, went online in March 2018.

It was built by Tokyo-based Kyocera TCL Solar, which is a joint venture between Kyocera Corp. and financial services company Tokyo Century Corporation.

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