The Kanoya Osaki Solar Hills solar plant in Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan, was built on a former golf course. Kyocera

Mountainous, densely populated Japan has little land available for large solar farms, so developers are erecting arrays on many of the now disused golf courses that proliferated during the country’s 1980s economic boom.

A Bloomberg analysis found that 9 percent of Japan’s utility-scale solar capacity is installed on former golf courses. The courses, which were once a symbol of Japan’s economic ascendance, have declined in popularity, leading many to close down.

After the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster , public outcry spurred Japan to close down dozens of nuclear reactors.…