KUSHIRO, Hokkaido--Motorists driving westward through a wetland region in Kushiro city can quickly spot numerous solar panels on both sides of the Doto Expressway.

Some areas are dotted with compact panels. Larger zones, the size of Tokyo Dome, are each covered by more than 10 large and dense solar panel arrays.

Locals call this area a “sea of mega solar farms.”

Environmentalists describe it as an essentially law-less land that threatens to destroy endangered species.

Their concern lies in the fact that the Kushiroshitsugen National Park lies just 1 kilometer north of this wetland area.

Boasting the largest marsh in Japan, the park became the first Japanese site registered in the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, in 1980.

Listing means habitats for precious creatures there must be protected carefully.

Although the solar farms lie outside the designated protected areas of the park, the threat to wildlife exists, and the city government is planning tougher restrictions on the installation of the solar farms.

IDEAL SPOT FOR SOLAR FARMS

Kushiro city is known as the “town of fog” because of the frequent mist that emerges from early spring.

However, autumn is often characterized by sunny days while its winters experience relatively few snowfalls. The municipality receives 2,000 hours of sunlight a year, a level equivalent to that of Tokyo.

In addition, land in the swampy zone can be bought for reasonable prices because the peat-filled area has been difficult to use for agricultural and other purposes.

A representative of a power station operator in Hokkaido installed photovoltaic panels in Kushiro a few years ago.

“The city is marked by little snowfall, whereas snow typically poses the gravest problem on Hokkaido,” the official said. “Additionally, the level ground sits in close proximity to the power distribution network.”

The park is home to a nest of Japanese cranes, as well as the Siberian salamander, a registered natural treasure of Kushiro city and a designated endangered species on the Environment Ministry’s Red List.

The boundary of the national park is not marked nor sectioned off, and significant natural features extend beyond the reserve. The Siberian salamander, for example, lives outside the border, and these rare amphibians could be affected by nearby development projects.

Concerns are growing that the recent introduction of mega solar power stations around the park will harm the natural environment in the neighborhood.

Districts surrounding national parks, such as the Kushiro wetland, are not subject to regulations under the Natural Parks Law.

Specialized restrictions are imposed on construction of solar power facilities inside national parks, but they do not apply to locations outside their borders.

The area around the Kushiro national park is a designated “non-urbanization zone,” where buildings cannot be erected. But solar panels can still be set up because that type of structure is not regarded as a “building” under the Building Standards Law.

Kushiro city’s scenery ordinance also stipulates that plans to introduce structures 8 meters or greater in height must be reported beforehand.

Photovoltaic panels, however, are not so tall.

Depending on their electricity generating capacities, environmental assessments of planned power plants are required to check their potential effects on local ecosystems.

But the evaluation criteria are as lenient as those for facilities planned in urban areas.

Despite the valuable landscape, no extra procedures are required when building solar power stations adjacent to the Kushiroshitsugen National Park.

The lack of restrictions and the ease in purchasing the land have made plots around the park popular candidate sites for large-scale solar farms.

Similar mega solar projects are under way in other areas adjacent to national parks, such as the Aso region in Kumamoto Prefecture and the Azuma mountain range of Fukushima Prefecture.

SURGING NUMBERS

According to the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy, 10-kilowatt-plus solar power production facilities had been installed in Kushiro city in 631 cases by September 2023, nearly eight times higher than 82 as of April 2014.

The total installation number for Kushiro town, Shibecha town and Tsurui village, which co-host the Kushiro marsh, increased from 50 to 301 over the past decade as well.

At the request of a nature conservation group, Kushiro city worked out guidelines on construction of solar power farms in June 2023, and the standards went into effect the following month.

Areas around the Kushiro wetland and other locations in the municipality are specified as “zones inappropriate for construction of power farms,” according to 25 relevant laws and ordinances, including the Natural Parks Law, the Forest Law, Hokkaido’s water resources preservation rules, and Kushiro’s scenery ordinance.

The latest guidelines call for strict reviews on proposals to build solar stations in these restricted zones. If necessary, the plans should be abandoned.

Operators are supposed to hold thorough discussions and explanatory sessions for residents in advance. The solar plants should be promptly demolished if decisions are made to close them for good.

Kushiro city’s environmental conservation department said it had received applications from 16 companies by Sept. 13, 2024, to install photovoltaic panels. Two requests suggested running power stations within the restricted zones, and one proposed project has already changed the installation point.

One problem is that violators of the guidelines face no penalties.

In one case involving Pashikuruto Pond, a designated important swamp in Kushiro city, a Tokyo-based mega solar farm operator dug a water channel without obtaining permission from the Hokkaido governor under the Forest Law.

The city notified the operator of its possible violation of municipal guidelines. But the company ignored the warning.

Kushiro city is now looking to implement a dedicated ordinance that would be stricter than the current guidelines.

The ordinance’s draft, presented to the municipality’s environment committee, proposes designating roughly the same zones in the guidelines as “control areas” under a new framework.

But no plans were included in the draft to regulate the entire non-urbanization zone. And the issue became a campaign topic during the Kushiro city mayor election in October.

Hidenori Tsuruma, who advocates “directly restricting the non-urbanization zone,” won the election. The municipal government is now considering further strengthening its crackdown to stop environmental destruction.

(This article was written by Morikazu Kogen and Kai Ichino.)