A Japanese man has sued a company involved in a local solar power plant, claiming he and his wife suffered heatstroke when light reflected from the panels baked his house.
The resident of Himeji City, Hyogo Prefecture, wants compensation of Â¥3.3 million – approximately $29,000 – after the strong glare heated a room in his house to more than 50°C in August 2014.
The new solar plant, called "Himeji Solar Way," has 1.224MW of solar panels and 990kW of PV inverters installed on reclaimed land located between a residential area and a reservoir, reports Japan Today.
The man filed the lawsuit against JAG Energy, a subsidiary of Japan Asia Group Ltd, which supported the development of the plant, at Kobe District Court in September 2015.
Oral proceedings were held in November 2015, and both plaintiff and defendant submitted written responses last month.
According to the plaintiff’s submission, after the solar panels were installed in June 2014, the reflected light started to enter a room on the second floor of his house through an east-facing window. He claims that the temperature in the room rose to 40°C in June, 45-50°C in July and higher than 50°C in August.
The plaintiff and his wife were diagnosed as having suffered heatstroke, according to the submission.
Photograph: Glare from solar panels (www.solarsponsoring.com.au)
Comments
Comments are closed.
Unless such a P.V. solar panel array is mounted, with each panel on powered mountings, which accurately track the ever changing angle of the sun – this sort of problem will inevitably arise ! The additional
expense will in time be offset by the much higher energy yield over the long life of the P.V. panel array and the added advantage of not having claims for damages levied against the “array” owner!