Japan's abandoned and bankrupt golf courses are getting a "Mulligan" — a second chance — as solar power stations.

The Kyocera Corporation announced last week it will turn a former golf course in Kyoto, pictured at left, into the 23-megawatt solar farm shown in the artist's rendition above.

The new station will generate enough electricity to power 8,100 homes when it goes online sometime in 2017.

Japan experienced a "golf boom" in the 1990s, building more than 2,000 new courses in just a few years; but the fad passed as quickly as it started, causing golf courses to go bankrupt and leaving hundreds of them abandoned across the countryside.

As it turns out, golf courses are the perfect place to build solar farms — the wide-open spaces get plenty of sun, making them prime real estate for the installation of solar panels along former fairways.

Kyocera also plans to join several other companies in building a second 92-megawatt solar plant on a golf course that was never completed in Kagoshima Prefecture.

Because the U.S. is also home to several golf courses that closed during the 2008 recession, cities in Florida, Utah, Kansas and Minnesota are discussing ideas for turning many of those into solar power stations as well.

(READ more at the Independent) — Photos: Kyocera Corporation, Released

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