Golf has been around for hundreds of years. And while interest in golf is declining, the future for golf courses has never been brighter.
It’s just that no one will be golfing on them.
Golf courses tend to be large plots of land, devoid of trees and shade. That makes them perfect places for solar panels. At least, that’s the thinking behind Japanese electronics company Kyocera’s latest plan. The company intends to turn an abandoned golf course into a huge solar farm, generating enough energy to power 8,100 Japanese homes.
It’s certainly a good way to ‘green’ golf courses, and not just because it will become a source of renewable energy. A solar farm will use only a minuscule fraction of the amount of water used by an active golf course. Which could make it a very good choice for drought-stressed California golf courses.
Golf courses, with their huge expanses of grass, use up significant amounts of water. Golfers hitting the links in California are finding less green grass on the fairways, if they’re open at all.