A Marriage Between Solar and Forest: Japan Promotes Wooden PV Racking Systems

Published at Renewable Energy World --- In the midst of the rapid growth in its solar photovoltaic (PV) market, Japan is looking into its local resources — forests — to provide racking for PV systems. Several firms in Japan are turning domestic cypress or cedar trees into PV racks, which are traditionally made of metal such as aluminum and steel. A 150-kW PV system owner in Mie prefecture stated that it came naturally to choose wood as racking for environmentally friendly solar energy. The company used cedar wood, which was harvested locally.

The strategy behind the marriage between solar and forest works perfectly for Japan. Both resources are abundant locally, and this means that it helps to stimulate local economies and reduce imports.  

Japan is poor in natural resources and relies heavily on fossil fuel imports, thus solar is a prime choice to help support its energy independence. The story is slightly different, however, for wood.  Japan is blessed with vast forests, but the domestic market is currently saturated with low-cost, imported timber, reducing the nation’s self-sufficiency for lumber from 98 percent in 1950 to 26 percent in 2011, according to the Japan Forestry Agency... See More Here