Majikina contributes to Yonaguni Island with solar-energy generator

Majikina contributes to Yonaguni Island with solar-energy generator

On May 30, at his house in Urasoe, Masaru Majikina adjusted the solar-energy generator that he will install on a house in Yonaguni.


June 1, 2013 Ryukyu Shimpo 　

Former high school teacher Masaru Majikina, a 63-year-old resident of Urasoe, is making a solar power system for homes of Yonaguni residents. Every year locals are inconvenienced when typhoons cause power outages. Majikina, who is also a natural energy researcher, is speeding up the pace of his work to finish before the typhoon season. He will visit Yonaguni in late June to install the equipment.

Majikina began to study natural energy by himself about 40 years ago when was teaching at a technical high school. The first area he researched was wind power. “I came to understand the importance of energy at the time of the oil shock,” he said.

He began to study solar power five years later when he was working at Chubu Technical High School (now Mirai Technical High School). After that, he tackled making use of a hybrid system combining two types of natural energy. Now, separate to the power supplied by the Okinawa Electric Power Co., in his own home he has in-house power generation using natural energy.

After hearing about him through the media, this April a resident of Yonaguni asked Majikina to make a solar power unit for his house. The Majikina family can use home-generated solar electricity during power outages. The solar panels are made by a Japanese manufacturer and are compact in size, high-performance and resistant to salt damage. Through a trial and error process, he added an air-cooling function to avoid the panels over-heating and reduced air resistance to withstand the typhoons on Yonaguni. “I hope it helps people there to lead their lives without having to use flashlights or candles,” Majikina said.

(English translation by T&CT, Mark Ealey)

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