By SHOTA TOMONAGA/ Staff Writer
July 6, 2025 at 07:00 JST
ASHIKAGA, Tochigi Prefecture--Vertical solar panels, while now a rare sight on farmland in Japan, in this case a rice paddy, look set to transform the nation’s landscape in years to come.
The technology revolves around “agrivoltaics,” which refers to dual use of farmland, meaning farmers can earn more from their small holdings through crop cultivation and photovoltaic power generation combined.
The sun trappers were set up in May 2024 by Sharing Farm, a business based in Ashikaga, Tochigi Prefecture, which owns the paddy.
That autumn, the company harvested 868 kilograms of rice from the field, down only 5 percent from the 2023 level.
Sharing Farm has signed an agreement with Marubeni Power Retail Corp. to sell the electricity generated by the panels in Ashikaga to the power producer and supplier based in Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward.
Unlike horizontal solar panels, vertical ones pose few restrictions on the height of farming equipment in dual-use farmland.
Both sides of the vertical panels, which face east and west, can generate electricity in the mornings and evenings, when demand for power is high, officials said.
“(The vertical solar panels) turned out to have less of an impact on the crop than we had expected,” said Taiki Akasaka, a member of Sharing Farm’s board of directors. “We would like to spread the technology further if they can be built more cheaply.”
Officials of the Japan Photovoltaic Energy Association noted that vertical photovoltaic power generation equipment first arrived in Japan around 15 years ago.
Erected in an upright position, they also have the advantage of being less susceptible to snowfalls and able to generate power by using light reflected from the snow surface.
“The number of vertical solar panels will probably increase at an annual rate of 20-30 percent, mostly in snowy regions,” a JPEA official said.
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A drone captures a rice-planting machine threading its way through an opening between vertical solar panels in Ashikaga, Tochigi Prefecture, on June 9. (Shota Tomonaga)
