Insurers have begun offering policies to solar power plant operators that will compensate for lost revenue due to cloudy days, a move that could give momentum to solar power generation as a viable alternative energy source.

Water containing radioactive materials leaked inside a nuclear power plant in southwestern Japan, but was contained and did not escape into the environment, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said on Saturday.

Imagine a lush forest: silent but for the chirping of birds flying through a dense canopy overhead, and damp, aromatic earth underfoot.

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. has become the second player in Japan's telecommunications industry to express an interest in power generation through renewable sources.

Trading house Mitsui & Co. will build a large solar power station in Higashi-Matsushima, Miyagi Prefecture, a city that suffered damage to about 30 percent of its land area in the March 11 disaster.

Retail giant Aeon Co. will strengthen its services for electric vehicles and plans to eventually sell the cars at its stores, a move that would infuriate existing dealerships, sources said.

The industry ministry and lawmakers are increasingly promoting the use of geothermal power as part of a nationwide drive to diversify power resources following the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

Things are looking sunnier for solar power advocates, as the government's task force on energy costs predicted that future increases in production will bring prices down for a home generation system, which could make it competitive with other energy sources.

For one condominium project in Yokohama's Asahi Ward, sales are heating up in the wake of the Great East Japan Earthquake, as solar power is becoming a hot upgrade.

A Kyoto startup has developed a soil additive that it says can revive farmland devastated by salty tsunami water in about four weeks.