Thanks to “innovative business models” and the combination of PV with batteries, Japan’s “solar boom” is far from over, market expert Izumi Kaizuka of RTS PV has said.
Despite the imminent demise of higher level subsidy payments for solar energy fed into the grid, Japan’s consumers, businesses and utilities continue to demand clean energy solutions, while other factors including deregulation of the electricity market help bolster the business case for solar-plus-storage in particular.
Kaizuka met with Energy-Storage.news for an update on the world’s second-biggest annual market for solar by deployment, at last week’s Intersolar Europe / ees Europe show in Munich, Germany.
According to RTS’ figures, Japan installed 6.5GW of solar in 2018. The country, which introduced a feed-in tariff (FiT) in 2009 and then pushed those rates up even further to stimulate market growth in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear accident, as the Asian country, heavily dependent on imported fossil fuels as well as its dozens of now-shuttered nuclear generators, sought to establish its energy independence.
Choices made by consumers and policymakers will shape the future
Much has been written about that secondary boom, which began in the summer of 2012. At one point, it became clear that high FiT rates had attracted more would-be developers of large-scale projects than the grid could handle, while the cost of deploying multiple gigawatts of solar each year in a country where available land is scarce became a political issue.
At one point, it was thought that as much as 50GW of approved but still-not-built projects could lose their agreed feed-in tariff. It seems that now, a definitive measure is in place for the backlog to be cleared.
“Regarding ‘big’ projects, or those over 10kW anyway, METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry) has set a due date for these,” RTS PV’s Izumi Kaizuka said.
“They must secure grid connection agreements during 2020 and if they do so they will keep the level of feed-in tariff (FiT) applicable at the time they were approved. If they fail to secure this grid connection agreement, the FiT applicable to the electricity sold from their solar power plant will fall to ¥21 (US$0.19) per kWh sold. In 2020, it’s likely there will be a big rush to get these projects completed.”
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