[1][2] This 315-meter-wide, 37-meter-tall facility is located in Anpachi, Gifu Prefecture,[3] in the geographical center of Japan, and can be seen from the JR Tōkaidō bullet train, which runs past on an adjacent railway.

[4] Initially, Sanyo Electric had intended to create the largest photovoltaic system in the world, with a 3.4 megawatt output, to mark the organisation's 50th anniversary.

However, during the initial planning, Sanyo had to recall several monocrystalline cells, which were the predecessors of the hybrid technology mentioned before, due to insufficient output.

Sanyo says “We have done this to show our sincere regret that this problem has occurred and to express our willingness and determination to both remember what happened and how important it is to maintain quality.” Construction was completed in December 2001.

Panasonic sold the land to a Osaka real estate developer, and media reports indicate that the building will be demolished.

This idea led to the Solar Ark's size and overall symbolic shape of being an example of producing clean energy.

[2] The weight of the actual body of the ark (pillars being excluded) is 3,000 metric tonnes and is constructed from structural steel.

Between the individual solar panels, there are, in total, 75,000 red, green, and blue computer controlled LEDs which are activated at night to produce images and words across the ark.